| CODE | CVL5045 | ||||||||||||
| TITLE | Refugee Law and Advocacy | ||||||||||||
| UM LEVEL | 05 - Postgraduate Modular Diploma or Degree Course | ||||||||||||
| MQF LEVEL | 7 | ||||||||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 5 | ||||||||||||
| DEPARTMENT | Civil Law | ||||||||||||
| DESCRIPTION | This study-unit is divided into four main parts. The first part focuses on qualifications and provides a basic understanding of who qualifies for refugee status and for other forms of international protection, with a specific focus on EU and Maltese legislation. The second part looks at asylum procedures and the third discusses the legal entitlements and obligations of asylum seekers and of those who are benefitting from some form of protection. The fourth and final part focuses on advocacy, legal representation and the provision of legal assistance to asylum seekers. The teaching component of this study-unit consists of lectures and three seminars, where attendance is compulsory and where the students will be invited to participate in discussions and also given the opportunity to discuss case studies based on real life stories. Where possible, cases will be assigned to students from the University of Malta Law Clinic who will follow the case, under the supervision of a lawyer or an academic supervisor. In the third and final seminar, the students will be requested to give a presentation on the case study which they will have worked on in groups. Study-unit Aims: This study-unit has two principal aims. First, it seeks to create awareness of the causes of forced migration in the world today and to provide students with a general understanding of refugee law. The study-unit aims to give an outline of the framework within which refugee law operates, through an analysis of applicable legislation at the international, EU and local level (i.e. the Maltese legal and policy framework) in relation to the reception of asylum seekers, qualification criteria, asylum procedures and the rights and duties of asylum seekers and other beneficiaries of international protection. It also discusses key issues and challenges which arise in protecting and assisting asylum-seekers and other beneficiaries, including the practical obstacles which these people face in trying to find long term solutions. Secondly, it aims to train students in the skills and methods required to prepare and present a legal case for an asylum seeker. In this regard, it encourages students to think critically about issues of forced migration by means of discussions on practical case studies and, where possible, engaging in real cases. It further encourages the critical analysis of legalislation and state practice on refugee law matters. Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge & Understanding By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - locate refugee law within a broader framework of human rights law, identifying relevant connections between these fields of law and the relationship which they require to subsist between normative frameworks and the formulation of state policies; - distinguish the different types of protection statuses granted at the international, EU and local level, be capable of exploring the implications of different statuses in specific cases and the different rights and duties associated with each status; - navigate the different stages of the asylum process, focusing on the EU and local scenarios. 2. Skills By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - engage in refugee law advocacy before the Refugee Commission and the Refugee Appeals Board; - draft an appeal application for international protection; - conduct effective Country of Origin Research and to liaise closely with Country of Origin Experts, to utilise their reports in advocacy and to interpret said reports; - draft a policy paper which explains how the duties emerging from International Refugee law could be implemented in the context of the challenges posed by the reception of large numbers of asylum seekers and the debates surrounding them. Main Text/s and any supplementary readings: Main Texts - James C Hathaway & Michelle Foster, The Law of Refugee Status, Cambridge University Press, 2014, 2nd ed. - Guy S. Goodwin-Gill & Jane McAdam, The Refugee in International Law, Oxford University Press, 2007, 3rd ed. - UNHCR, Handbook and Guidelines on Procedures and Criteria for Determining Refugee Status under the 1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, December 2011 Supplementary readings - David Zammit (2016), 'Vernacularising Asylum Law in Malta', Europeanization through Private Law Instruments, University of Regensburg, Rainer Arnold and Valentina Colcelli eds., pp.73-107 (available online); - Jeanise Dalli (2019) ‘The Asylum Seeker’, Dictionary of Statuses within EU law: The Individual Statuses as Pillar of European Union Integration, Antonio Bartolini et. al. (eds.), 1. ed. Cham: Springer, pp. 41–47 (to be circulated); - David E. Zammit (2019), 'Subsidiary Status', in Dictionary of Statuses within EU Law: The Individual Statuses as Pillar of European Union Integration, Antonio Bartolini et. al. (eds.), 1. ed. Cham: Springer pp. 551-558 (to be circulated); - European Migration Network (2009), 'The practice in Malta concerning the granting of non- EU harmonised protection statuses: EMN National Report' (from https://homeaffairs.gov.mt/en/MHAS-Information/EMN/Documents/EMN%20Non-Harmonised%20forms%20of%20protection%20report%20-%20MT%20.pdf) - aditus Foundation (2018), Compendium of Asylum Jurisprudence, Law and Policy: A Collection of Maltese Asylum Case-Law; - Edwards, A. (2005), Human rights, refugees, and the right ‘to enjoy’ asylum, International Journal of Refugee Law, 17(2), pp. 293–330; - Gil-Bazo, M. (2015), Asylum as a general principle of international law, International Journal of Refugee Law, 27(1), pp. 3–28. |
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| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Lecture and Seminar | ||||||||||||
| METHOD OF ASSESSMENT |
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| LECTURER/S | Camille Savelli Jeff Walsh Jeanise Dalli Andrew Galea Debono Ibtisam Sadegh David E. Zammit |
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The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2023/4. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
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