Externalization and Rightlessness
About the Project
This research project investigates how international refugee law allows refugees subjected to externalisation measures to become rightless.
Research Topic & Roadmap
States are increasingly outsourcing migration control practices beyond their borders, for instance, by conducting asylum procedures extraterritorially or enabling actors in other countries to prevent migration.
The project examines the role of international refugee law in the production of rightlessness within the context of externalisation. It analyses the foundations, functional principles, and content of refugee law in connection with a selection of externalisation arrangements worldwide and identifies potential deficiencies in the structure of the law.
The first year of the project focuses on a literature review, a draft theory, and the selection and examination of a first set of externalisation arrangements worldwide. In the second year, the theory and analysis will be extended to an expanded set of arrangements and revised. The third year involves finalizing the theory and disseminating the results through publications, workshops, and a conference.
Research Focus
Previous research on international refugee law often shows that state attempts to restrict access to asylum are unlawful. This project views externalisation complementarily from the perspective of ‘rightlessness’. Hannah Arendt used this term to describe the problem that people without the protection of their country of origin also lose their rightful ‘place in the world’.
International refugee law aims to address this issue by providing individuals with a secure legal status in a different country. However, examinations of specific geographical and legal contexts show that persons affected by externalisation measures become rightless again, despite developments in international law.
The analytical framework developed in the project thus expands the scholarly and political engagement with externalisation. It aims to enable the identification, naming, and explanation of situations where people are excluded from the protection of the law.
Research Methods
The project’s methodology follows an iterative approach that combines doctrinal legal analysis with theoretical conceptualisation. Against the backdrop of an integrated understanding of international refugee law, selected externalisation arrangements are examined to capture ‘rightlessness’. The project alternates between formulating theoretical assumptions and testing them on case studies; the analysis of legal sources and documents is complemented, where necessary, by guideline-based interviews with experts to close information gaps and refine the theory.
Project Data
- Project title: Externalization and Rightlessness
- Project Consortium: Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Fundamental and Human Rights (LBI-GMR)
- Cooperation Partner: Refugee Law Initiative (RLI), University of London
- Project Team LBI-GMR: Adel-Naim Reyhani (Project Lead), Sebastian Sperner
- Project Duration: December 2025 – November 2028
- Funding Body: Austrian Science Fund (FWF)
- LBI-GMR Research Group: Asylum and Migration
