Par­tic­u­lar Social Group Cri­terion in Refugee Law and the EU Court of Justice’s WS Bul­garia De­cision in the Con­text of Do­mest­ic Vi­ol­ence (C-621/21, WS v. In­tervy­uir­asht organ na DAB pri MS)

De­vel­op­ment sum­mary

Sibel Safi’s art­icle in Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi Hukuk Fakültesi Dergisi ad­dresses how the ‘mem­ber­ship of a par­tic­u­lar social group’ cri­terion is ap­plied in refugee-law claims in­volving do­mest­ic vi­ol­ence and re­views the lead­ing cases in the field. It also dis­cusses the EU Court of Justice’s WS/Bul­garia judg­ment (C-621/21), in­clud­ing its find­ing that women who are vic­tims of do­mest­ic vi­ol­ence may be re­garded as mem­bers of a par­tic­u­lar social group for refugee-status pur­poses; the author fur­ther states that the piece aims to draw on domestic-violence schol­ar­ship and provide a basis for prin­cipled ad­ju­dic­a­tion.