Refugee Law (LAW532H1S)

The United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, born of compromise, is deliberately vague. As a result, there is rich debate within the academy and in the courts about who deserves refugee protection.  

This course will give an overview of Canadian refugee law, with a focus on the more heated aspects of this debate: Do people in danger have a duty to ask the authorities in their own country for help before seeking Canada's protection? If so, how poor must their country's response be before Canada is obliged to step in? Do claimants have a duty to ask for refugee protection in the first safe country that they reach, or at the first opportunity? How diligent must they be in bringing their claims forward? Students will come away with an understanding of the most important conversations taking place within the Canadian jurisprudence, and in particular, of the conflicting conceptual frameworks that underlie its deep divisions.  

The course will consider the criteria for refugee status in Canada as well as who is excluded from refugee status.  

Lastly, the course will consider a widely recognized problem within the Canadian refugee determination system. Refugee status decisions in Canada, and elsewhere, are characterized by enormous disparities in decision-maker's grant rates. Students will develop an understanding of what motivates the divisions in the jurisprudence, and how fact-finding operates in a refugee hearing.