Friday 14 March 2008

The 'murky relationship' revisited

Although considerably short and slightly fragmented, this is a very symbolic sampling of what was the workshop titled 'A Murky Relationship: Human rights and UK Immigration and Asylum Policy' hosted by the Centre on February 21, 2008. With a splendid turnout of 70 attendees and an unmistakably challenging lineup of speakers, who managed to tackle the questions from a remarkable number of angles, both academic and practical, it was an event that was able to emphasize most strikingly the inconsistency and inadequacy of the current state of the law in relation to, or when confronted by, the realities of the practice.

The workshop presented the following programme:
Session I
Method versus doctrine: The legal framework

Mark Symes, Garden Court Chambers
‘Old Wine in a New Bottle? Or a New Dimension in Subsidiary Protection? Article 15C of the Refugee Qualification Directive - Protection for Civilians fleeing Internal Armed Conflict’

Dr. Helene Lambert, Westminster University
‘A Common European Asylum System: Harmonisation by the Judges’

Patricia Tuitt, Birkbeck College
‘The Time of the Refugee’

Session II
Instrumentalising interpretative choices: A social conception of law

Dr. James Sweeney, Durham University 
'You are disbelieved': Credibility in the Asylum Process’ 

Sarah Cutler, Refugee Council
‘The fight for asylum in the UK’

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