Refugee, Migration and Citizenship Law: A Comparative Perspective
Course Information
- Course Number
- L6333
- Curriculum Level
- Upperclass
- Areas of Study
- Human Rights, International and Comparative Law, Law, Humanities, and the Social Sciences
- Type
- Lecture
Section 001 Information
Instructor
Seyla Benhabib
Senior Research Scholar; Adjunct Professor of Law
Section Description
The movement of peoples across transnational borders, be it to seek asylum, employmet or for other purposes has emerged as a major issue of our times. The displaced population of the world is at its highest level since WWII with 123.2 million people who are forcibly displaced according to the UNHCR. This number includes internally displaced people remaining within borders as well as those crossing international borders. In the light of these trends, laws regulating transnational migrations, refugee status and access to citizenship have become the focus of significant comparative scholarship. This course will analyze laws of migration, refuge and asylum in comparative perspective, paying special attention to the global refugee condition.
Topics to be covered include: elements and transformations of citizenship; citizenship, gender, culture, and race; political theory and migration; statelessness and the right to have rights; the 1951 Refugee Convention in comparative and historical perspective; American refugee law; "crimmigration" and recent UN Conventions on migration and mobility; climate migrants.
- School Year & Semester
- Spring 2026
- Points
- 3
- Method of Evaluation
- Paper and Exam
- J.D Writing Credit?
- Minor (upon consultation)
- Major (only upon consultation)
- LLM Writing Project
- Upon consultation
Learning Outcomes
- Primary
-
- At the end of the course, students will have acquired understanding of and/or facility in a specific body of law, including major policy concerns
- At the end of the course, students will have acquired understanding of and/or facility in doctrinal analysis, including close reading of cases and precedents, and application to facts
- At the end of the course, students will have acquired understanding of and/or facility in values-based considerations in law-making
- At the end of the course, students will have acquired understanding of and/or facility in the historical development of law and legal institutions
- At the end of the course, students will have acquired understanding of and/or facility in use of other disciplines in the analysis of legal problems and institutions, e.g., philosophy; economics,other social sciences; and cultural studies
- At the end of the course, students will have acquired understanding of and/or facility in comparative law analysis of legal institutions and the law
- Secondary
-
- At the end of the course, students will have acquired understanding of and/or facility in judicial, legislative and/or administrative processes
- At the end of the course, students will have acquired understanding of and/or facility in jurisprudential considerations in legal analysis
Course Limitations
- Instructor Pre-requisites
- None
- Instructor Co-Requisites
- None
- Requires Permission
- No
- Recommended Courses
- None
- Other Limitations
- No limitations but some interest in normative poltical theory and comparative and international law would help.
