The Limits of Transnational Law: Refugee Law, Policy Harmonization and Judicial Dialogue in the European Union

Abstract

This book ‘explores the prospects for a transnational legal order in the context of refugee law in Europe’ (Lambert, p. 1). In doing so, it addresses, and closes, a blatant and already long-existing gap in legal literature on international and European refugee law. This publication covers one of the most controversial issues under discussion since the beginning of a Common European Asylum System. Even before then, when a mere harmonization of asylum law and policy in the member states was intended, differing national practices and jurisdictions were seen critically, especially when the responsibility of a single member state for dealing with an asylum claim was laid down in the 1990 Dublin Convention. The most controversial issues are the differences in asylum practice and the differing approaches of asylum authorities and refugee law judges when they interpret provisions of the CSR51, in particular articles 1 and 33, as well as other international obligations created to protect refugees.