<p>Refugees: National and International Responses </p><p>Asylum Seekers, Refugees, Responses to the Dilemmas of Forced Migration A Practice Oriented Course Boldizsár Nagy</p><p>Brief Course Description This course explores the legal and policy issues of forced migration. It is practice oriented, enabling the students to meet leading actors of the refugee scene, including the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Budapest office staff, the Hungarian Office for Immigration and Nationality and the leading NGO-s (Helsinki Committee, Menedek). Meeting with asylum seekers and refugees is also part of the course. In academic respects the course will analyse in detail the cornerstone documents of the present refugee regime, including the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees with its 1967 Protocol, and the evolving EU Common European Asylum System as it develops through legislative proposals and adopted documents as part of the area of freedom, security and justice. The increasing body of human rights treaties applied for the protection of asylum seekers as well as selected national legal systems and case law will also be reviewed and discussed. Knowledge of law in general or international law in particular is not a prerequisite of participation in the course. The necessary concepts will be explained. The course's final content will depend on the students' interest to the extend that the syllabus offers alternatives and students taking the course will choose. The first nine classes are set (maximum they can be compressed into eight) but the choice remains concerning possible classes 11 - 17. Out of that seven classes students actually taking the course can elect their preferred two, so the total number of classes will be 12. If there is a huge demand to have more than two out of them, classes 7 – 9 may be compressed to two occasions. The reading list is not final, it will change before the hard copy of the reader is submitted. Grading: Participation and presentation(s): 35 % Final exam: 65 % Office hours: TBA A slim volume II will contain the readings depending on the choice concerning the last classes. Syllabus Class 1 The toolkit of the refugee advocate: understanding those elements of international law which are needed to interpret and apply refugee-related documents. Can international law defend an individual? (And a state?) Who creates the norms of international law and in what form? How to find a refugee law norm? The practical tools to identify and interpret state obligations related to forced migration. Readings * Akehurst’s Modern Introduction to International Law, Seventh Revised Edition by Peter Malanczuk, Routledge, London, 1997, pp 1 - 8 and 35-61 Class 2–The notional and historic framework of migration including forced migration. Basic concepts of migration. Statistics on its magnitude. History and causes of flight. The institutionalization of refugee protection in the interwar era and before UNHCR. Readings: * Andreas Demuth: Some Conceptual Thoughts on Migration Research in: Biko Agozino (ed.) Theoretical and Methodological Issues in Migration research Ashgate, Aldershot, 2000, pp 21-58 * Massey, Douglas, S., Arango, Joaquín, Hugo, Graeme, Kouaci, Ali, Pellegrino, Adela,Taylor, Edward, J.: Theories of International Migration: A Review and Appraisal, Population and Development Review, vol. 19 (1993) No. 3, 431 - 466 p. * Loescher, Gil, Beyond Charity: International Co-operation and the Global Refugee Crisis Chapter 2: "The Origins of the International Refugee Regime" pp. 32 – 55 Class 3 The creation and structure of the 1951 Convention. Refugee definitions, different standards of recognition. International and national concepts used. Fundamental concepts (durable solutions) and the fundamental principles: non-refoulement, family unity, non- discrimination. Readings * Goodwin-Gill, Guy S., The Refugee in International Law (Second Edition) Clarendon, oxford, 1996 Chapter 1: "Definition and Description" pp. 3 – 31 </p>