Postgraduate Module Descriptor

LAWM715: International Migration and the Law

This module descriptor refers to the 2019/0 academic year.

Module Aims

This module aims to provide you with a deep understanding of the international law framework for the regulation of international migration and the legal, political and conceptual problems associated with this framework. You will learn to appreciate and analyse key debates and undertake independent academic research at an advanced level in this area. 

The module also aims to develop your capacity to present complex ideas and to identify, explain, analyse and critique in writing complex factual material, legal instruments, and debates and concepts, using appropriate structure, register and language and supported by competent referencing and bibliography.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

This module's assessment will evaluate your achievement of the ILOs listed here - you will see reference to these ILO numbers in the details of the assessment for this module.
On successfully completing the programme you will be able to:
Module-Specific Skills1. Demonstrate deep and systematic knowledge and understanding of the main international and EU law instruments relevant to international migration and the relationship between them and with national laws;
2. Demonstrate an in-depth understanding of the operation and effectiveness of the relevant international law in a number of selected areas and the difficulties that arise from their interaction with national states’ laws and politics;
3. Identify, explain and evaluate key issues relating to international and European law and migration critically and comprehensively and to apply relevant rules and theoretical concepts systematically
4. Carry out independent advanced research into complex legal and policy questions within the area of international migration law;
Discipline-Specific Skills5. Demonstrate detailed and comprehensive knowledge and understanding of legal concepts and critical awareness of their contextual/social/political implications
6. Identify, explain, analyse and critique in writing complex factual material, legal instruments, and debates and concepts, using appropriate structure, register and language and supported by competent referencing and bibliography.
7. Integrate and assess complex information from primary and secondary legal sources comprehensively, using appropriate interpretative techniques
Personal and Key Skills8. Manage relevant learning resources/ information/ learning strategies confidently and independently, and to develop own arguments and opinions at a very high/ professional level
9. Identify, retrieve and use the full range of library-based and electronic resources efficiently and autonomously

Indicative Reading List

This reading list is indicative - i.e. it provides an idea of texts that may be useful to you on this module, but it is not considered to be a confirmed or compulsory reading list for this module.

Opeskin, B, Perruchoud, R, and Redpath-Cross, J, Foundations of International Migration Law (Cambridge University Press, latest edition)

Rubio-Marin, R. ed. Human Rights and Immigration (Oxford University Press, 2014)

Other reading will be set on a week by week basis.

Books from which further reading will be set include:

Brettell C. and Hollifield J. eds. (2014) Migration Theory: Talking across Disciplines (Routledge: Third edition)

Dembour, M. (2015) When Humans Become Migrants: Study of the European Court of Human Rights with an Inter-American Counterpoint (Oxford University Press)

Hathaway, J. and Foster, M. (2014) The Law of Refugee Status (Cambridge University Press)

 

Students will be directed to articles in a number of journals including:

European Journal of Migration and Law

Journal of Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Law

International Journal of Refugee Law

Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies

Modern Law Review