Colloquium on Challenges in International Refugee Law

Every second year, the Program in Refugee Law hosts a Colloquium on Challenges in International Refugee Law. Leading academic experts are invited to Ann Arbor in order to develop an intellectual framework for resolution of a significant problem facing international refugee law. The purpose of the Colloquium is to tackle a single, cutting-edge concern via preparatory study and a two-day debate and policy formulation meeting. Students are actively involved in the drafting of background research for the meeting, and participate as colleagues with the invited experts.

The first Colloquium, convened in 1999, drafted the Michigan Guidelines on the Internal Protection Alternative.

The second colloquium was held March 2001. Participating legal scholars included T. Alexander Aleinikoff (Georgetown University Law Center), Catherine Dauvergne (University of Sydney - Australia), Suzanne Egan (National University of Ireland, Dublín), Rodger Haines (Deputy Chairperson of the Refugee Status Appeals Authority – New Zealand), Walter Kälin (University of Bern – Switzerland), and Volker Türk (UNCHR’s Department of International Protection – Geneva, Switzerland).

The subject of the 2001 Colloquium was the limitation of refugee status to persons able to show that their fear of persecution is "for reasons of" race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion. The result of their research and deliberations are the Michigan Guidelines on Nexus to a Convention Ground.

The third Colloquium convened in March 2004. Participating legal scholars include Jenny Bedlington (Former First Assistant Secretary in Australia's Immigration Department), Ryan Goodman (Harvard Law School), Kay Hailbronner (Department of Public International Law, University of Konstanz - Germany), Rodger Haines (Deputy Chairperson of the Refugee Status Appeals Authority – New Zealand), Stephen Legomsky (Washington University School of Law), Pene Mathew (Australian National University Law School - Canberra), Gregor Noll (University of Lund - Sweden), and Catherine Phuong (University of Newcastle Law School - United Kingdom).

During this colloquium the group considered the meaning of the "well-founded fear" clause of the refugee definition, in particular whether it requires a purely objective test of risk or compels consideration in part of the subjective apprehensions of the refugee claimant. The result of their research and deliberations are the Michigan Guidelines on Well-Founded Fear.