Module Identifier
LAM8010
Module Title
MIGRATION AND ASYLUM LAW
Academic Year
2008/2009
Co-ordinator
Professor Ryszard W Piotrowicz
Semester
Intended for use in future years
Other Staff
 

Course Delivery

 

Assessment

Assessment Type Assessment length / details Proportion
Semester Assessment One essay of 5000 words  100%

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this module, students should be able to:
1. Display a knowledge and understanding of the underlying rationale and methodology of this area of law at the international and European levels.
2. Display a knowledge and understanding of the relationship between criminal law and human rights protection, as well as the related legal interests of the State and individuals, within the international and European legal orders.
3. Critically evaluate and test the arguments relating to the need for international regulation of migration and asylum.
4. Locate and evaluate the relevant literature and materials in this field and use them in critical discussion of the subject.
5. Present critical and well-informed argument relating to the establishment and development of international and European legal regimes for the regulation and management of migration and asylum.

Content

Migration Law - the international and European Union legal regimes with regard to regular and irregular migration, including the rights of migrant workers. This includes aspects of human rights law and the law of the World Trade Organization.
Smuggling of Human Beings - outlines and discusses the emerging legal regime from a human rights and criminal law perspective.
Trafficking of Human Beings - outlines the rapidly evolving and substantial recent developments from a human rights and a criminal law perspective, including international criminal law.
Law of International Protection - the definition of a refugee and the content of that definition; varying national legal approaches to asylum seekers; definition of subsidiary, or complementary, protection; the emerging EU common asylum system; the role of general human rights instruments, in particular those prohibiting torture and inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment.
Statelessness resulting from migration and the obligations of source and destination States.
The role of non-governmental organizations and international organizations, such as International Organization for Migration, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Amnesty International, La Strada, Terre des Hommes and KARAT Coalition.

Brief description

Academic rationale of the proposal:

Asylum and migration is one of the key challenges to developed and lesser developed States throughout the world. Yet the crucial legal rights and obligations that underpin them are not often appreciated in what is sometimes a very emotional debate. This module reponds to the need for increased understanding and awareness of these core issues.

Brief Description:

This module will introduce students to the legal regime with regard to two distinct yet closely related issues: regular and irregular migration, under international law and European Union law; and the law with regard to 'international protection'. In the absence of well organized migration channels in most States, many migrants resort either to irregular migration, such as with the assistance of people smugglers, or else to claiming asylum on human rights grounds. The module asseses the principal legal issues with regard to regular and irregular migration, including the right of States to control their frontiers and their obligations to accept certain categories of migrants, including asylum seekers, as well as the obligations of States with regards to how they treat such people. It also addresses the legal regime with regard to people smuggling and people trafficking, widely recognized as not only a threat to fundamental human rights but also as a major challenge to national and international security and stability.

The module then addresses the law of asylum, both with regard to refugees in the narrow sense but also with regard to those who do not qualify as refugees but nevertheless have an entitlement to international protection, i.e., an entitlement, on human rights grounds, to remain in a foreign State.

Module Skills

Skills Type Skills details
Application of Number N/A
Communication Written communication is developed by the presentation of information and argument in written answers and in a more informal way by the use of Blackboard to encourage communication among students and between students and staff. Oral communication skills are developed at the residential study schools. Written communication assessed only.
Improving own Learning and Performance Distance learning, by its very nature, requires strong individual learning and performance structures and this module further develops key skills in this area.
Information Technology The module is delivered almost entirely by distance learning which relies heavily on the use of electronic information resources and on-line learning and teaching.
Personal Development and Career planning Independent learning enhances time management skills. Studying the module will also develop an enhanced capacity for critical thought and the ability to work independently.
Problem solving By the examination and discussion of actual and hypothetical case studies.
Research skills By analysis of relevant international conventions and appreciation of the context in which they have been adopted, as well as relevant case law.
Subject Specific Skills None.
Team work Team working skills will be developed in group activities and discussions at the residential study schools.

Notes

This module is at CQFW Level 7