CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2015
| Author | Ratliff, Joshua Marc |
|---|---|
| Title | Targeting Refugees Rather Than Terrorists: the Processual Determinants of Compliance with the Refugee Convention in Heightened Security Climates |
| Summary | In recent years, particularly in the wake of 11 September 2001, many states have perceived an increased terrorist threat, which has led them to adopt new and unprecedented security postures. This has in many cases led to a surge in anti-terrorism legislation. Due to the restrictive and preventive purpose of these laws, immigration and asylum policy is frequently implicated, and refugee protection is harmed. The UK and the US are two countries which have experienced terrorism crises which in turn provoked the passage of such legislation. In both cases the effect of the laws was in many cases to restrict and block access to bona fide refugees. This situation brought the US and the UK out of compliance with international refugee law, namely, the 1951 United Nations Convention relating to the Status of Refugees. Before long, however, the UK courts intervened to reconcile government action in this area with its international refugee obligations. The US courts did not. This thesis compares these cases in order to discover the cause of the divergent compliance outcomes. Drawing insights from the literature and applying them to the cases, it is found that the degree of embeddedness in relevant transnational legal regimes as marked by membership and iterative processes of interaction is highly determinative of whether a state will maintain compliance with the CRSR in spite of the demands of a changing security agenda. |
| Supervisor | Nagy Boldizsár |
| Department | International Relations MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2015/ratliff_joshua.pdf |
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