Lezing

SG - Refugees

Why is it so difficult to translate solidarity into law and policy?

Organisator Studium Generale
Datum

di 4 oktober 2022 20:00

Locatie Impulse, gebouwnummer 115
Stippeneng 2
6708 WE Wageningen
+31 (0) 317 - 48 28 28

About series Refugees

People have fled wars, disaster, hunger and persecution throughout history. Less constant is the extent to which they have been received with open arms. Explore collective solidarity with refugees through the lenses of legal theory, historical media sociology, and, the experience of those on the run.

There is a striking difference between grass roots solidarity on the one hand, and the way in which Western States and the EU navigate legal obligations towards refugees on the other. Many state authorities have demonstrated that meeting the needs of refugees can turn into passing the hot potato between countries and even within one’s own borders. Why does the question of solidarity become complicated at the level of law and policy? Europe’s record in this area raises many questions. Legal theory expert Bas Schotel dissects them looking at the mechanisms that do and do not work when it comes to translating solidarity for refugees into law and policy.

About Bas Schotel

Bas Schotel is assistant professor Legal Theory at the Faculty of Law, University of Amsterdam. He publishes on the rule of law in Europe, in particular on how the law can protect individuals against unlawful acts by public authorities. He examines legal arrangements and ways of thinking by lawyers and policymakers that may promote or hamper individual legal protection. In his publications he analyses inter alia Frontex, the Common European Asylum System, the EU-Turkey Agreement, authoritarian rule of law.