CASE LAW
This page contains a list of online databases which can provide municipal and international case law and specific case law by country. If you are aware of precedential or influential judgements in your jurisdiction, please forward them to us and we will link them on this page for others to use.
RefWorld
http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/category,LEGAL,,CASELAW,,,0.html
This site is maintained by the Office of the UNHCR. It contains over 7,000 judicial decisions from a large number of jurisdictions. Most of the cases are from higher courts and are therefore likely to be more persuasive to future courts and decision-makers. It has a search function that allows filtering by country of origin of the refugee claimant as well as country of the decision.
The University of Michigan Law School Refugee Caselaw Site.
http://www.refugeecaselaw.org/Home.aspx
Commonwealth and International Human Rights Case Law Databases
http://www.interights.org/database-search/index.htm
These two databases are compiled by INTERIGHTS, the International Centre for the Legal Protection of Human Rights, and made freely available on their website. One covers human rights decisions in the courts of Commonwealth countries and the other covers the decisions of international courts and tribunals. The databases can be searched separately or together. There is a summary of each case and some judgments are available in full.
The World Law Guide
www.lexadin.nl/wlg/legis/nofr/legis.php
A free global legislation database which lists case law, legislation, law firms, law schools, law journals and articles by country, with listings for every country in the world.
WorldLII
http://www.austlii.edu.au/catalog/3061.html
This website combines legal resources from 123 jurisdictions. It has a searchable database of case law as well as legislation. At the time of writing, it had resources, including case law, from Australia, Belgium, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Canada, Denmark, East Timor, Japan, Moldova, Mongolia, New Zealand, Norway, Palestinian Autonomous Territories, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States of America and Venezuela. This site is the best site for searching Australian refugee case law.
International Refugee Case Law
http://refugeecaselaw.org/guidedsearch.asp
This website provides access to case law from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the United States and 28 other Northern asylum countries. It allows for searching by country of origin, time period and by ‘concept’.
Asylum Law
This site provides access to case law, organized by country and theme, from 35 countries. The themes include HIV, sexual minorities, gender and children.
NYU GlobaLex
http://www.nyulawglobal.org/globalex/index.html
GlobaLex is an electronic legal publication dedicated to international and foreign law research, published by the Hauser Global Law School Program at NYU School of Law. GlobaLex is committed to the dissemination of high-level international, foreign, and comparative law research tools in order to accommodate the needs of an increasingly global educational and practicing legal world.
Legislation Online
http://www.legislationline.org/search
This website provides access to European materials on refugees. To access them, go to the search function and type ‘refugee’ in the text field, Select ‘Migration’ as the topic and ‘Legal opinion’ as the type to gain access to decisions regarding refugees from
European Court of Human Rights
http://cmiskp.echr.coe.int/tkp197/search.asp?skin=hudoc-in-en
Inter-American Court of Human Rights
http://www.corteidh.or.cr/bus_temas.cfm
Both the European and Inter-American Courts of Human Rights have made a large number of decisions involving asylum and refugee claims. These decisions can be sourced through the search functions available at these links.
New Zealand Refugee Law
This website gives access to New Zealand case law. It offers full-text decisions of decisions from superior courts and initial decision makers.
Kenyan Refugee Law
This website provides access to superior court decisions. There are very few reported decisions on refugees available but this is the most authoritative source for them.
African Human Rights Case Law Analyser
A new database from the Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa (IHRDA) and Human Rights Information and Documentation Systems (HURIDOCS) for jurisprudence of the African Human Rights System. The Caselaw Analyser provides:
- Automated high quality pertinent analysis;
- Easy browsing of inter-related decisions;
- Quick access of primary case law for each violation;
- Automatic calculation of jurisprudential value of each decision based on frequency of citation;
- Comprehensive key word search;
- Hyperlinks to authorities (laws and cases cited);
- Easy annotation and sharing of commentary on interesting decisions.
Case Law by Country
GERMANY
Afghan citizen denied asylum in Germany but deportation impeded due to the situation in Afghanistan.
Turkish national of Kurdish ethnicity fled Turkey and sought asylum in Germany in 2002. Denied asylum and protection from deportation by the Federal Office, he was recognised as entitled to asylum by the Administrative Court in 2004. In 2007, the Respondent’s appeal before the Higher Administrative Court was rejected. The Respondent appeals the Higher Administrative Court decision before the Federal Administrative Court.
HONG KONG
Hong Kong, Yam v. Director of Immigration, High Court Action File 105/2008
- Judge ruled that customary international law of non-refoulement did not constitute a legal norm and has no application in Hong Kong domestic law.
- Refused to recognise the right of non-refoulement.
- Also ruled that Hong Kong courts may rely on the UNHCR’s determination of whether a refugee has a well-founded fear of persecution.
The following four cases have been the impetus for the unprecedented “Joint Position Paper from the Law Society of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Bar Association on the Framework for Convention Against Torture (“CAT”) Claimants and Asylum Seekers”, 31st March 2009...
- Challenge against the Government’s reliance on UNHCR decisions to meet its obligations under the Convention Against Torture.
- The case which forced the Government to conduct its own assessment of claims under the Convention Against Torture.
- Challenge against the Government’s refusal to assess refugee claims, as required under customary international law.
- Held that non-refoulement is a matter of customary international law (although found that HKSAR had persistently objected against it).
- Held that the Government’s administrative detention of claimants under the Convention Against Torture was unlawful because it did not make the grounds and procedure for detention certain and accessible, as required by the Hong Kong Bill of Rights Ordinance.
- The same principle would arguably apply to refugee claimants.
- Challenge against the Government’s unfair assessment system of claims under the Convention Against Torture.
- Resulted in an independent appeal tribunal system and government funded legal representation.
