Extraterritorial processing - on the verge to state responsibility.
(2007)Department of Law
- Abstract
- The basis for this thesis is a proposal presented by the British government in 2003. It was suggested in the proposal that asylum claims should not be assessed within the EU. Instead all asylum seekers arriving irregularly at the borders of a Member State of the European Union - the EU - should be returned to an asylum center, a camp, established in an asylum producing area of the world. Here the asylum seekers would be kept until their asylum claims have been decided. The problem is that the proposal does not grant an absolute right to a determination process. The focus of the proposal is instead to reduce the number of asylum seekers arriving at the borders of the EU. While the majority of all asylum claims would be assessed outside the... (More)
- The basis for this thesis is a proposal presented by the British government in 2003. It was suggested in the proposal that asylum claims should not be assessed within the EU. Instead all asylum seekers arriving irregularly at the borders of a Member State of the European Union - the EU - should be returned to an asylum center, a camp, established in an asylum producing area of the world. Here the asylum seekers would be kept until their asylum claims have been decided. The problem is that the proposal does not grant an absolute right to a determination process. The focus of the proposal is instead to reduce the number of asylum seekers arriving at the borders of the EU. While the majority of all asylum claims would be assessed outside the territory of the Member States, the question arises under what conditions numerous international instruments could be applied in this extraterritorial location. To exemplify how the international rules would operate in an extraterritorial setting I have chosen to explore the right to liberty. One might think that the obligations under international law of the Member States would immediately become applicable in an extraterritorial location. Under these circumstances actions such as incarceration (or lack of other viable alternatives since the right to a determination is not included ex-officio) would be deemed illegal due to the effects they would have on the right to liberty. This thesis has to the contrary shown that international instruments protecting asylum seekers are not designed to protect all rights given to the asylum seeker. In many instances the right to liberty seems to lack such importance that the convention texts could be applied extraterritorially. The rules on state responsibility - on the other hand - have no territorial limitation. Adopting this approach it would be formally realistic to find responsibility for the actions carried out in an extraterritorial location. The possibilities of finding responsibility are limited. If the Member States managed to outsource the operations of an extraterritorial camp to such an extent where it is not possible to consider that the Member State exercises power, control or jurisdiction over the camp responsibility will not be found. The question of state responsibility will in other words be dependent upon what degree of autonomy the camp will be given in relations to the Member States. (Less)
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http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/1556171
- author
- Bergman, David
- supervisor
- organization
- year
- 2007
- type
- H3 - Professional qualifications (4 Years - )
- subject
- keywords
- Folkrätt
- language
- English
- id
- 1556171
- date added to LUP
- 2010-03-08 15:55:19
- date last changed
- 2010-03-08 15:55:19
@misc{1556171,
abstract = {{The basis for this thesis is a proposal presented by the British government in 2003. It was suggested in the proposal that asylum claims should not be assessed within the EU. Instead all asylum seekers arriving irregularly at the borders of a Member State of the European Union - the EU - should be returned to an asylum center, a camp, established in an asylum producing area of the world. Here the asylum seekers would be kept until their asylum claims have been decided. The problem is that the proposal does not grant an absolute right to a determination process. The focus of the proposal is instead to reduce the number of asylum seekers arriving at the borders of the EU. While the majority of all asylum claims would be assessed outside the territory of the Member States, the question arises under what conditions numerous international instruments could be applied in this extraterritorial location. To exemplify how the international rules would operate in an extraterritorial setting I have chosen to explore the right to liberty. One might think that the obligations under international law of the Member States would immediately become applicable in an extraterritorial location. Under these circumstances actions such as incarceration (or lack of other viable alternatives since the right to a determination is not included ex-officio) would be deemed illegal due to the effects they would have on the right to liberty. This thesis has to the contrary shown that international instruments protecting asylum seekers are not designed to protect all rights given to the asylum seeker. In many instances the right to liberty seems to lack such importance that the convention texts could be applied extraterritorially. The rules on state responsibility - on the other hand - have no territorial limitation. Adopting this approach it would be formally realistic to find responsibility for the actions carried out in an extraterritorial location. The possibilities of finding responsibility are limited. If the Member States managed to outsource the operations of an extraterritorial camp to such an extent where it is not possible to consider that the Member State exercises power, control or jurisdiction over the camp responsibility will not be found. The question of state responsibility will in other words be dependent upon what degree of autonomy the camp will be given in relations to the Member States.}},
author = {{Bergman, David}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Extraterritorial processing - on the verge to state responsibility.}},
year = {{2007}},
}