The Legal Abyss of Discretion in the Resettlement of Refugees

Development summary

Tom de Boer and Marjoleine Zieck’s article in the International Journal of Refugee Law examines how discretion operates in the resettlement of refugees and whether that leaves a legal void and room for arbitrariness. It explains that resettlement is, in theory, the principal means of responsibility-sharing in refugee law, but that available places remain very limited in practice; it also reviews EU resettlement proposals and Member State practice from a refugee-rights perspective, asking whether the ECHR and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights apply to those procedures.