International Law Seminar: Asylum & Comparative Refugee Law

This two-credit seminar will examine some of the ways in which both international and U.S. immigration and refugee law provide, or bar, legal status and protection for individuals who have been persecuted and deprived of their civil, political, or human rights by the government and/or quasi-governmental forces in their countries of origin. We will begin with the genesis of asylum law in the United Nations Refugee Convention and the U.S. 1980 Refugee Act, and explore how recent non-legislated changes in U.S. practice and policy have transformed the actual determination of asylum applications. We will briefly review the asylum doctrines and processes of Mexico and the Northern Triangle (Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador) inasmuch as these bodies of law affect U.S. asylum proceedings. Students will perform practice-oriented exercises and simulations to develop a realistic understanding of the complexity of asylum issues such as well-founded fear, credible fear, and reasonable fear; particular social group; persecution and the presumption of future persecution; firm resettlement; internal relocation; particularly serious crime; the one-year filing limit; and the material support of terrorism bar. There will be no final examination, but substantial written work will be required in the form of a research paper, Immigration Court Merits Hearing Memorandum of Law, appellate brief, or expert affidavit on country conditions; this work will be evaluated based on the quality of writing as well as on its content and professional presentation. As this is an applied learning course, class participation and peer collaboration are essential, and will count toward the final grade. During spring break, selected students may be eligible to participate on a volunteer basis, or for academic credit in a separate course, in the representation of asylum-seekers in detention centers or at the Mexican border. Prior completion of the introductory course, Immigration Law, would be helpful and is recommended, but is not a prerequisite. Students who have not previously taken Immigration Law may need to do a modest amount of additional reading (provided at relevant points in the syllabus) as background for the work in this class.