Law reform proposals for the protection of the right to seek refugee status in the European Community

Lomba, Sylvie Da (2001) Law reform proposals for the protection of the right to seek refugee status in the European Community. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

In recent years, the Member States of the European Community (EC) have acknowledged the need for greater cooperation in the field of asylum as they recognised the extra-territorial impact of their laws and policies on asylum. The recognition of the European dimension of asylum matters reached its height with their "communautarisation" by the Treaty of Amsterdam of 2 October 1997 which inserted a Title IV on visas, asylum, immigration and other policies related to free movement of persons. It follows that provisions on the right to seek refugee status within the meaning of the UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees now fall within the scope of EC law. Thus, issues arise as to the standards to be set at EC level. In that respect, serious concern has been raised with regard to the protection of the right to seek refugee status within the EC in the light of the restrictive policies developed at both national and European level. It is argued that significant changes in the developing common asylum policy are needed if compliance with international refugee law is to be achieved and the right to seek refugee status safeguarded within the EC. With this in mind, this thesis makes a number of law reform proposals with a view to preserving the right to seek refugee status, thus setting comprehensive minimum standards designed to ensure compliance with international refugee law. To that end, current EU and EC measures regarding the right to seek refugee status as well as Member States' (France and the United Kingdom) laws and practices are measured against the requirements of international refugee law with a view to identifying their strengths and failings. Whilst a pragmatic approach is recommended in legislating on the right to seek refugee status at EC level, pragmatism shall not prevail over compliance with international refugee law and the latter remains the fundamental requirement. This means that the need to protect the right to seek refugee status within the EC may be balanced out with the Member States views on the matter so long as adherence to international refugee law ensured.

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Keywords: International law, European studies.
• Colleges/Schools: College of Social Sciences
• Supervisor's Name: Burrows, Professor Noreen
• Date of Award: 2001
• Depositing User: Enlighten Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:2001-73980
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 14 Jun 2019 08:56
• Last Modified: 26 Aug 2021 15:47
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/73980