ACCESS - Gatekeepers to International Refugee Law? – The Role of Courts in Shaping Access to Asylum

ACCESS is funded by the European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant under the European Union’s FormaHorizon 2020 research and innovation program, Grant Agreement No 101078683 - November 1st 2023 until 31st of October 2028

Principal Investigator: Madalina Moraru

States around the globe are increasingly relying on push and pull-backs, walls and fences, detention measures, carrier sanctions, digitalization, and externalization of asylum proceedings to prevent refugees from accessing asylum. Since no international court is specifically dedicated to interpreting the 1951 Refugee Convention, the responsibility falls upon domestic and supranational courts to assess the compatibility of these barriers with the Refugee Convention and other human rights instruments. The ACCESS project seeks to understand how national and supranational courts from across the globe adjudicate on barriers to accessing asylum. ACCESS adopts a comparative approach analysing adjudication practices from 18 national jurisdictions and 4 supranational courts (Court of Justice of the EU, European Court of Human Rights, Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and African Court of Human Rights). Jurisdictions were chosen based on: their significance in the refugee regime, geographical position, implementation of barriers, legal precedents, participation in regional organisation, legal systems' diversity, court configurations, and access to supranational courts. The working hypothesis is that differences in judicial findings on barriers to accessing asylum may stem from socio-legal and political factors, some of which, like adjudication systems and comparative reasoning, have been under-studied by legal scholarship.  

Website: https://site.unibo.it/access/en

Members of the Department

Sara Mariella Lambertini Martinez

Other members

Antonios Tzanakopoulos	Professor of Public International Law, University of Oxford
Bostjan Zalar	Asylum Judge in Slovenia, President of the European chapter of the IARMJ, ad hoc judge of the ECtHR
David Cantor	Professor, University of London, Latin America expert and founding director of the RLI network
Violeta Moreno-Lax	Professor of Law, Queen Mary, expert for Spain, ECtHR, and externalisation practices
Hugo Storey	former judge at and former president of IARMLJ, UK expert
Marina Sharpe	Assistant Professor of International Studies at Canada’s Royal Military College Saint-Jean, expert for the African regional refugee system
Iris Goldner Lang	Jean Monnet Professor of EU Law, University of Zagreb, Vice-Dean, and UNESCO Chairholder, expert for Croatia, CJEU, Odysseus Network representative
Rebecca Hamlin	Associate Professor of Legal Studies and Political Science, University of Massachusetts, expert on US refugee system
Andreas Føllesdal	Professor of Political Philosophy, University of Oslo, co-director of Pluricourts
David Kosar	Associate Professor of Constitutional Law and Political Science, University of Masaryk
Brid Ni Ghrainne	Associate Professor of Public International Law, Maynooth University
Paula Garcia Andrade	Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Hubert Bekisz	European University Institute
Thekli Anastasiou	University of Surrey
Lila Garcia	University of Mar del Plata

Publications

Chiara Scissa, Francesco Luigi Gatta, Access to asylum in times of crises, force majeure and instrumentalization in the EU: Restrictive trends in asylum law and in the case-law, in Freedom, Security and Justice: European Legal Studies, n. 3/2024.

Adel-Naim Reyani, Chiara Scissa, The Court of Justice’s Stance on Safe Countries of Origin: What Implications at the EU and National Levels?, in EU Law Live, 2024.

Review by Chiara Scissa of Il divieto di espulsione collettiva di stranieri nel diritto internazionale e dell’Unione europea by Francesco Luigi Gatta (2023), in Diritto, Immigrazione e Cittadinanza, n. 3/2024.

Madalina Bianca Moraru, Carmen López Esquitino, The Impact of the 2024 CEAS Reform on the EU’s Return System: Amending the Return Directive Through the Backdoor, in EU Migration Law Blog, September 2024.

Alice Lacchei, At the Proof of Time Pressure: Asylum Judges at the Frontline of Asylum Appeals in Italy and France" in Rivista italiana di politiche pubbliche, August 2024.

Chiara Scissa, The role of Courts in the era of EU externalization policies: A focus on Libya, Tunisia, and Niger, in RLI Blog, July 2024.

Adel-Naim Reyhani, Externalization and the Rightlessness of Refugees: An Analytical Framework, Externalizing Asylum, July 2024.

Madalina Moraru, The interplay between the Schengen Borders Code and the Return Directive - another episode in the reintroduction of internal border controls saga - C-143/22, ADDE and others, Eulawlive Op-Ed, 18 October 2023.

Adel-Naim Reyhani, Das BBU-Erkenntnis des VfGH – Interpretationen und Implikationen, Blog Asyl, 13 February 2024.

Cristina Dallara and Alice Lacchei, "Country you go, asylum adjudication you find". Asylum appeals implementation arrangements, actors' discretion, and organizational practices, Review of Policy Research, 23 March 2024.

Madalina Moraru and Adel-Naim Reyhani, “Interpreting the Dublin Regulation amid fundamental rights violations at the EU’s border – Reflections on the Judgment of the Court of Justice in X v Staatssecretaris van Justitie en Veiligheid, C-392/22”, EU Law live,  15 April 2024.

Conferences, lectures and talks

ADiM Migration Conference 2024, Viterbo, 29-31 May 2024

21th IMISCOE Annual Conference, Lisbon, 2-5 July 2024

ACCESS Kick-off Conference, Bologna, 19-20 September 2024

IARMJ Refugee law in Africa, Sharm El Sheikh, 17-21 November 2024

Technical Workshop: Shaping an EU Migration Research & Innovation Agenda, Bruxelles, 11 February 2025

Refugee Admission, Relocation and Recognition Practices in Comparative and Transnational Social Sciences, Dublin, 10 – 11 April 2025

22th IMISCOE Annual Conference, Paris, 1-4 July 2025

ECPR Annual Conference, 26-29 August 2025

The ACCESS team has also organized a Seminar Series titled “THE EU’S NEW LEGAL FRAMEWORK ON ASYLUM AND ITS IMPACT ON ACCESS TO ASYLUM”. It consists of 10 monthly seminars organized between October 2024 and September 2025, which will explore the functioning and interplay of the various amendments brought by the 2024 CEAS reform. It thereby pays particular attention to the effects of the reformed legal framework on access to asylum, the role of courts in shaping respective rights, and the impact on Member States’ asylum adjudicating systems. The seminar series is an initiative in the framework of the ACCESS project and invites perspectives of both academics and practitioners, including asylum judges and lawyers. The Seminars aim to reach a broad audience and promote the exchange among academia, policymaking, and practice. Please find below further details.

Seminar 1: Pre-entry screening, 28 October 2024

Seminar 2: Procedures at the border, 15 November 2024

Seminar 3: Schengen, return and readmission, 20 December 2024

Seminar 4: Derogation Measures in Situations of Crisis, Instrumentalization and Force Majeure, 24 January 2025

Seminar 5: L’accesso al giudice nel sistema Dublino tra assetto esistente e nuovo regolamento gestione: questioni teoriche e sfide applicative, 21 February 2025

Seminar 6: Safe Third Country Concept – Challenges Arising from CJEU Jurisprudence, 17 March 2025

Planned seminars with provisional dates and titles:

Seminar 7: Detention

Seminar 8: New externalizations and the role of courts: the UK-Rwanda deal and the Italy-Albania protocol from a comparative perspective

Seminar 9: The external dimension of the New Pact

Seminar 10: Legal aid