CREDITS 2 (LV) 3 (ECTS) - 32 Contact Hours
This course offers a general introduction to European migration and asylum law. It aims to give a basic knowledge of the main features and challenges of contemporary migration governance, with a special focus on the European legal-institutional framework.
The course covers the principles governing the management of the migratory phenomenon, highlighting its complexity and the multiplicity of interacting and often competing dynamics. It traces the foundations of the international cooperation on migration-related matters, from the first, initial experiences following the World War II, to todays’ mechanisms of multilateral collaboration put in place to manage large movements of migrants and asylum seekers.
The course explores different legal and institutional frameworks, involving different international organisations, such as the United Nations, the Council of Europe and, most notably, the European Union. Following an overview of the most relevant legal tools governing migration management and migrants’ fundamental rights at the various levels, the course focuses on the multiplicity of actors and players involved on the international scene in the process of migration and asylum governance. This includes UN bodies and agencies, such as the UNHCR and IOM, as well as ad hoc figures activated within the Council of Europe, like the Special Representative on Migration and Refugees or the Commissioner for Human Rights. A special focus will be put on the European Union and its administrative and institutional apparatus developed for dealing with migration and asylum-related challenges: most notably the Agency Frontex, created in 2004 and in charge of managing an integrated and coordinated system of border controls, and EASO (European Asylum Support Office), established in 2010 and currently under a process of reform and reinforcement both in terms of competences and capacities.
Having framed the relevant legal and institutional tools relating to migration management, the course will devote particular attention to the recent challenges posed by the migratory pressure in the European Union. The so-called 2015 refugee crisis will be analysed in depth, focusing on its causes and effects, as well as on the reactions and responses put in place by the EU Member States and by the European Institutions.
Finally, the course will discuss the relevant and recent migration-related case law of the two European courts: the EU Court of Justice and the European Court of human rights. It will highlight the role played by those jurisdictions in shaping the protection of migrants’ fundamental rights on the one hand, and in imposing obligations on States in terms of migration management on the other.
The course is designed to be interactive: theoretical issues will be confronted with practical cases (i.e. case-law) in order to allow the students to understand and verify how relevant international and EU legal principles are actually implemented and understood by the States. Particular attention will be devoted to the recent and current challenges faced by the EU and its Member States (e.g. the 2015 refugee crisis, the impact of the COVID-19 emergency on migration and mobility rights, the controversial reform of the so-called Dublin system).
- Teacher: Francesco Luigi Gatta