Researching International Refugee Law

This research guide focuses on international refugee law. For a helpful introduction to the subject area, see the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ handbook, Refugee Protection: A Guide to International Refugee Law.

Research Guides on Refugee Law:

Asylum, Immigration, and Refugee Law (Feb. 2006) (Boston U.). Provides links to sources of international and domestic law.
FMO Research Guide: International Law and Legal Instruments (June 2005) (Forced Migration Online). Provides an extensive and detailed introduction to the subject area.
Guide to International Refugee Law Resources on the Web (March 2009) (LLRX). Describes and provides links to the relevant legal instruments and international bodies.
Immigration and Asylum Law (Harvard). Includes links to international instruments, IGOs, NGOs, and sources of national law.
Refugee Law (Aug. 2009) (U.C. Berkeley). Discusses national and international resources.
Update to Guide to Country Research for Refugee Status Determination (March 2002) (LLRX). Discusses how to locate country information.

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International & Regional Legal Instruments:

Two principal conventions govern international refugee law: the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1967 Protocol to the Convention. As stated in its Introductory Note, the Convention codifies the rights of refugees and establishes the basic standards for their treatment. The Protocol eliminates the geographic and time limitations of the 1951 Convention.

In addition, two regional instruments, the OAU Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa and the 1984 Cartagena Declaration on Refugees, extend refugee rights to a broader class of people.

EISIL (ASIL). Database of authenticated sources and materials related to refugee law.
International Humanitarian Law Database (ICRC). Collection of international humanitarian law treaties and conventions.
International Human Rights Instruments (OHCHR)
International Migration Law Database (IOM). International, regional, and national instruments, searchable by keyword.
Refworld Legal Collection (UNHCR). Sort by "type" to find treaties and other international legal instruments.
Treaties & International Agreements Online (Hastings faculty, students, and staff only). Searchable full text database of 11,000+ U.S. treaties and international agreements.
Univ. of Minnesota Human Rights Library Human Rights Treaties & Other Instruments. Organized by subject matter or searchable by keyword. Includes ratification information by country.
U.N. Treaty Collection. Includes the full text & status of treaties deposited with the U.N.

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Background Documents & Country Information:

Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Includes human rights documents and reports organized by country. Select from the "human rights by country" menu to retrieve a list of country-specific UN reports.
Refworld (UNHCR). "Reports relating to situations in countries of origin, policy documents and positions, and documents relating to international and national legal frameworks." For information relating to a specific country, select the country name from the pull-down menu on the left.
UNBISnet. Searchable catalog and full text of UN documents, as well as commercial publications and non-U.N. documents.
United Nations Official Document System. U.N. resolutions, daily journal entries, and other documents.
United Nations Resolutions & Reports Related to Migration (IOM).
University of Minnesota Human Rights Library. Provides links to refugee and asylum resources, including country reports from the U.S. State Department, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch.
University of Minnesota Asylum & Refugee Resources. Links to refugee treaties, statutory materials, NGOs, etc.
National Implementation Database (ICRC). National legislation and case law relating to humanitarian law, organized by country or keyword.
Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. Website includes links related to country of origin research, as well as National Documentation Packages that contain a selection of documents relevant to the determination of refugee protection claims.
Ecoi.net. Gathers country of origin information from over 100 sources, including U.N. agencies and NGOS.
U.S. State Department. Annual country reports on human rights practices.

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International Organizations:

Intergovernmental Organizations (IGOs) -

International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). ICRC's website includes news updates and a database of international humanitarian law.
International Organization for Migration (IOM). IOM's International Migration Law database includes international, regional, and national instruments.
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHR)
U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). IACHR's website includes published cases reviewed by the Commission, as well as special reports on human rights-related topics. The website of the Rapporteurship on the Rights of Women includes older documents focused on women's rights.
Inter-American Commission of Women (CIM). CIM's site includes the commission's annual reports and reports on the implementation of women's human rights treaties in the region.

Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs) -

Asylumlaw.org. Includes over 4,000 documents used to support asylum cases, organized by country.
Amnesty International. The library includes news and reports by country, region, and topic.
Center for Gender & Refugee Studies (Hastings).
European Country of Origin Information Network (Ecoi.net).
Forced Migration Online
Human Rights Watch
U.S. Committee for Refugees
Directory of Development Organizations. PDFs of development organizations listed by country.

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Asylum Case Law & National Legislation:

Case Law -

Australia:

Australian Legal Information Institute. Free internet access to Australian legal materials, including the decisions of the Refugee Review Tribunal.
Lexis [AUSCAS]. All available decisions from Australian Commonwealth courts and tribunals, and state and territory supreme courts.
Westlaw [AU-ALLCASES]
Michigan-Melbourne Refugee Case Law Site. Refugee cases from the highest national courts of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Canada:

Canadian Legal Information Institute. Case law from the federal and provincial courts.
Lexis [CANCAS]. All available reported and unreported fulltext judgments with summaries from Canadian courts.
Westlaw [CAN-ALLCASES]
Michigan-Melbourne Refugee Case Law Site. Refugee cases from the highest national courts of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

New Zealand:

New Zealand Legal Information Institute. Free internet access to New Zealand legal materials, including case law.
New Zealand Refugee Law Decisions. Full text of the leading decisions of the Refugee Status Appeals Authority (RSAA).
Lexis [NZCAS]. New Zealand Law Reports from 1958.
Michigan-Melbourne Refugee Case Law Site. Refugee cases from the highest national courts of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

United Kingdom:

British & Irish Legal Information Institute. Free internet access to British and Irish case law and legislation, European Union case law, Law Commission reports, and other law-related British and Irish material.
Lexis [ALLCAS]. United Kingdom cases, combined courts.
Westlaw [UK-RPTS-ALL]
Michigan-Melbourne Refugee Case Law Site. Refugee cases from the highest national courts of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Other Jurisdictions:

Refworld's Legal Collection
ICRC's National Case Law database
Nationality laws of European states and territories

For additional help finding case law from other jurisdictions, consult the Foreign Law Guide, GlobaLex, the Law Library of Congress' Guide to Law Online, and other resources listed in Hastings' foreign law research guide. Other resources for finding foreign case law and legislation include the Global Legal Information Network (GLIN) and the World Legal Information Institute (WorldLII).

National Legislation -

International Migration Law Database (IOM). Includes international, regional, and national instruments.
Refworld. Narrow results by type to "National Legislation."
ICRC's International Humanitarian Law National Implementation Database. Includes implementing laws and regulations related to international humanitarian law.
Legislationonline.org. Links to domestic legislation related to human rights, including migration and citizenship.
Government immigration websites

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Secondary Sources:

Secondary Print Resources -

Hastings Online Catalog [suggested subjects - "Refugees -- Legal status, laws, etc," "Political Refugees," "Women Refugees," "Refugee Children," "Religious Refugees," "Forced Migration," "Asylum, Right of," "Refugees -- Protection -- International Cooperation," & "Emigration and Immigration Law"
First Search [click on the ILL link in WorldCat to request a book]
San Francisco Public Library Catalog [anyone with a Cal. ID or driver's license may obtain a library card]

Anne F. Bayefsky & Joan Fitzpatrick eds., Human Rights Protection for Refugees, Asylum-seekers, and Internally Displaced Persons: A Guide to International Mechanisms and Procedures (Transnational Publishers 2002). K3230.R45 H865 (5th Stacks)

Erika Feller et al. eds., Refugee Protection in International Law (Cambridge Univ. Press 2003). KZ6530 .R44 (6th Stacks)

Michelle Foster, International Refugee Law and Socio-Economic Rights: Refuge from Deprivation (Cambridge Univ. Press 2007). K3230 .R45 F67 (5th Stacks)

Guy Goodwin-Gill, The Refugee in International Law (3d ed., Oxford Univ. Press 2007). K3230.R45 G66 (Course Reserve)

James C. Hathaway, The Rights of Refugees Under International Law (Cambridge Univ. Press 2005). K3230.R45 H383 (5th Stacks)

James C. Hathaway, The Law of Refugee Status (Butterworths 1991). KE4454.H38 (Course Reserve)

Jane McAdam, ed., Forced Migration, Human Rights, and Security (Hart 2008). KZ6530.F67 (6th Stacks)

Jane McAdam, Complimentary Protection in International Refugee Law (Oxford Univ. Press 2007). KZ6530.M33 (6th Stacks)

Karen Musalo et al., Refugee Law and Policy: A Comparative and International Approach (Carolina Academic Press 2007). KF4836.A7 M87 (Course Reserve).

Richard Plender, ed., Basic Documents on International Migration Law (2d rev. ed., Martinus Nijhoff 1997). K3275.A35 B37 (5th Stacks)

Ann Vibeke Eggli, Mass Refugee Influx and the Limits of Public International Law (Nijhoff 2002). KZ6530.E38 (6th Stacks)

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Secondary Online Resources -

Congressional Research Service (Hastings only). Non-partisan reports prepared by the Library of Congress for Congress.
Forced Migration Online Journals. Searchable, full-text back issues of Disasters, Forced Migration Review, International Journal of Refugee Law, International Migration Review, and Journal of Refugee Studies.
Google Advanced Search. Limit your search to .gov or .org domains to find IGO and NGO documents.
Google Scholar. Search articles, excluding patents.
HeinOnline (Hastings only). Includes PDFs of law journal articles and a database of foreign and international law resources.
Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals (Hastings only). Index of articles and book reviews from more than 450 legal periodicals. Coverage includes international law, comparative law, and municipal law of countries other than the United States, British Isles, and British Commonwealth.
Index to Legal Periodicals & Books (Hastings only). Covers 1908-present.
Academic OneFile (SFPL). Collection of journals covering the physical sciences, technology, medicine, social sciences, the arts, theology, literature, etc.
Academic Search Complete (SFPL). Multidisciplinary, full-text database.
JSTOR (SFPL). Full-text of academic journals going back to 1838.
LegalTrac (Hastings only). Index of law journals and legal newspapers, searchable by subject.
ProQuest Research Library (Hastings only). Journal, magazine, and newspaper articles on a range of subjects.
Lexis (News & Business > Country & Region (excluding U.S.)). An excellent resource for foreign newspapers.
News and Newspapers Online. Links to online newspapers, organized by country.

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Created by Hilary Hardcastle, Reference Librarian (updated July 2011).