Workshop: Impact of Academic Work on Asylum and Immigration at the ECtHR

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) plays a major role in shaping access to protection in Europe for refugees and other migrants, and the content of that protection.

The jurisprudence of the ECtHR on asylum and immigration has long been analysed (and critiqued) by legal academics, some of whom inhabit the dual role of academic and practitioner and who have brought their research before the Court, for example as counsel or through third party interventions. Yet, relatively little is known about how practitioners (such as lawyers, judges and Registry staff) engage with academic work and how legal academic work can develop practical impact in the ECtHR’s courtrooms.

This workshop brings together legal academics working on the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) with practitioners who have worked at, or engaged with, the ECtHR to discuss how practitioners use academic work, how academics and practitioners can work more closely together, and how academic work can have real impact in the ECtHR’s courtrooms.

Programme:

9:30 Registration and light breakfast

10:00 Welcome

Dr Maja Grundler, Royal Holloway University of London

10:15 Roundtable 1 - Interventions before the ECtHR in Practice: Procedures, Evidence and New Ideas

Sue Willman (Deighton Pierce Glynn Solicitors and King’s College London), Reflections on taking cases to the ECtHR

Prof Eva Brems (Ghent University), ‘Academic third-party interventions before the ECtHR in the field of asylum and migration: the experience of the Human Rights Centre at Ghent University’

Dr Sarah Ganty (Yale/Ghent/CEU DI) and Eva Sevrin (KULeuven/Ghent), ‘Camara and the illusion of asylum seekers’ rights in Belgium’

Isabel Kienzle (Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg), ‘Pushing evidence into judgments: Solutions for improving the evidentiary basis of pushback judgments at the ECtHR’

Dr Sarah Ganty (Yale/Ghent/CEU DI), ‘A Right to the Effective Access to Rights’: a Pleonasm?’

Chair: Dr Maja Grundler, Royal Holloway University of London

12:15 Lunch

13:30 Roundtable 2 - Academic Work and Impact at the ECtHR: Moving from Theory to Practice

Dr Francoise Tulkens (Judge Emeritus and University of Louvain), Reflections on the Role of Academic Work at the ECtHR

Dr Alan Desmond (University of Leicester), ‘Dubious Distinctions? Calling the European Court of Human Rights to account for its differential treatment of migrants in its Article 8 expulsion jurisprudence’

Dr Vladislava Stoyanova (Lund University), ‘The developments under Article 4 ECHR since the “groundbreaking” Rantsev v Cyprus and Russia’

Dr Lorenzo Bernardini (University of Luxembourg), ‘“Beyond the Façade”—A Pragmatic Approach on Immigration Detention that Paves the Way for Fair Trial Rights’ Recognition’

Dr Ben Hudson (University of Exeter), ‘Vulnerability, Asylum and the ECtHR’

Chair: Dr Maja Grundler, Royal Holloway University of London

15:30 Close

Networking over coffeee and afternoon snacks

Location: Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU, Room 104 (Torrington Room)

Please see here for information on how to find Senate House: https://hrc.sas.ac.uk/sites/default/files/school_advance_studies/Senate%20House%20map.pdf

The workshop is in-person only; hybrid paricipation is not possible.

Practicalities:

This workshop is funded by an SLSA Impact Grant. Catering (vegetarian only) will be provided; please email any other dietary requirements to maja.grundler@rhul.ac.uk by 24 April 2024. The workshop is free to attend, but since limited places are available, registration is essential. Please only register if you are able to attend, ideally for the full day. Attendees must cover their own travel expenses.