Commentaries: Asylum in Europe, Refugees, Stateless Persons

Commentaries analyze and interpret the original meaning of provisions in treaties or other legal instruments. Two new commentaries relevant to our field include:

European Immigration and Asylum Law: A Commentary, edited by Kay Hailbronner. Oxford: Hart Publishing, November 2010 [publisher info]. Here's the blurb from the publisher:

The EU has usurped essential parts of the national laws of immigration and asylum. Hence, European Directives and Regulations have become more important for the immigration departments and administrative tribunals. From German Courts alone, more than five referrals on the interpretation of Directives, especially in the area of the so-called Qualification-Directive (criteria for the recognition as a refugee,) have been made to the European Court of Justice. The immigration departments, too, are obliged to interpret national law, according to European Directives and Regulations. Accordingly, in most of the European member states numerous courts are required to decide on the basis of the European law in the field of immigration and asylum.

The 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol: A Commentary, edited by Andreas Zimmermann. Oxford: Oxford University Press, January 2011 (UK ed.) [publisher info]. Here's the blurb from the publisher:

This Commentary provides for a systematic and comprehensive analysis of the 1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol on an article-by-article basis, exposing the interrelationship between the different articles and discussing the latest developments in international refugee law. In addition, several thematic contributions analyse questions of international refugee law which are of general significance, such as regional developments and the relationship between refugee law and the law of the sea.

Previous commentaries on the refugee convention include the following:

• Commentary on the Refugee Convention 1951, Articles 2-11, 13-37, by Atle Grahl-Madsen. Geneva: UNHCR, 1997 [full-text] (note: Article 1 is not included)
• Convention relating to the Status of Refugees: Its History, Contents and Interpretation. A Commentary, by Nehemiah Robinson. New York: Institute of Jewish Affairs, World Jewish Congress, 1953 [info]
• The Refugee Convention, 1951: The Travaux Préparatoires Analysed, with a Commentary, by Paul Weis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995 [info] [full-text] (note: Article 1 is not included; see also reviews in J. Conflict & Sec. Law 2(2): 209-212; JRS 9(1): 103-104; and Nordic J. Intl. Law 66(2&3): 416-418.)

The Travaux Préparatoires for the refugee convention are available on the UNHCR web site in reverse chronological order.

For a commentary on the stateless persons convention, see:

• Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons. Its History and Interpretation, by Nehemiah Robinson. New York: Institute of Jewish Affairs, World Jewish Congress, 1955 [full-text]

Finally, two helpful introductory notes on the refugee convention and the stateless persons convention are available via the UN Audiovisual Library of International Law.

Tagged Publications.