Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-mp689 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T22:39:24.486Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration: a kaleidoscope of international law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2020

Vincent Chetail*
Affiliation:
Professor of International Law, Director of the Global Migration Centre, Head of the International Law Department, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva, Switzerland
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: vincent.chetail@graduateinstitute.ch

Abstract

The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration has prompted an intense political debate at both the international and domestic levels. Most controversies focus on its legal stance and highlight the hybrid character of the Compact as a soft-law instrument. While acknowledging the political nature of the Compact, this paper delves into its legal dimensions from the perspective of international law. This inquiry into its normative content discloses three main features: (1) the Compact is not a codification of international legal norms governing migration; it is an instrument of both (2) consolidation and (3) expansion of international law to foster inter-governmental co-operation and promote safe, orderly and regular migration.

Type
Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Atak, I et al. . (2018) ‘Migrants in Vulnerable Situations‘ and the Global Compact for Safe Orderly and Regular Migration. Queen Mary University of London, Legal Studies Research Paper No. 273/2018.Google Scholar
Carrera, S (2016) Implementation of EU Readmission Agreements: Identity Determination Dilemmas and the Blurring of Rights. Springer Open.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chetail, V (2019) International Migration Law. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Cholewinski, R (2015) Migration for employment. In Plender, R (ed.), Issues in International Migration Law. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 2780.Google Scholar
Coleman, N (2009) European Readmission Policy: Third Party Interests and Refugee Rights. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Costello, C and Foster, M (2015) Non-refoulement as custom and jus cogens? Putting the prohibition to the test. Netherlands Yearbook of International Law 46, 273327.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crépeau, F (2018) Towards a mobile and diverse world: ‘facilitating mobility‘ as a central objective of the global compact on migration. International Journal of Refugee Law 30, 650656.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (2014) Criminalisation of Migrants in an Irregular Situation and of Persons Engaging with them. Vienna: European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights.Google Scholar
Gauci, J-P and Stoyanova, V (2018) The human rights of smuggled migrants and trafficked persons in the UN Global Compacts on Migrants and Refugees. International Journal of Migration and Border Studies 4, 222235.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gest, J, Kyse, I and Wong, T (2019) Protecting and benchmarking migrants’ rights: an analysis of the global compact for safe, orderly and regular migration. International Migration 57, 6079.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guild, E, Basaran, T and Allinson, K (2019) From zero to hero? An analysis of the human rights protections within the global compact for safe, orderly and regular migration. International Migration 57, 4359.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hailbronner, K (1997) Readmission agreements and the obligation on states under public international law to readmit their own and foreign nationals. Zeitschrift für ausländisches öffentliches Recht und Völkerrecht 57, 149.Google Scholar
Muntarbhorn, V (2018) The Global Compacts and the dilemma of children in immigration detention. International Journal of Refugee Law 30, 668673.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Noll, G (2003) Return of persons to states of origin and third states. In Aleinikoff, TA and Chetail, V (eds), Migration and International Legal Norms. The Hague: TMC Asser Press, 6174.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peters, A (2018) The Global Compact for Migration: To Sign or Not to Sign. EJIL: Talk! Available at https://www.ejiltalk.org/the-global-compact-for-migration-to-sign-or-not-to-sign/ (accessed 23 September 2020).Google Scholar
Wouters, J and Wauters, E (2019) The UN Global Impact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration: Some Reflections. Working Paper No. 210. Leuven: Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies.Google Scholar