Refugee Survey Quarterly Advance Access originally published online on September 16, 2008
Refugee Survey Quarterly 2008 27(3):16-32; doi:10.1093/rsq/hdn043
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This article appears in the following Refugee Survey Quarterly issue: ASYLUM AND THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS [View the issue table of contents]
Comparative Perspectives of Constitutional Asylum in France, Italy, and Germany: Requiescat in Pace?
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Abstract |
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Most countries provide asylum through domestic legislation, such as a statute incorporating the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. France, Italy, and Germany stand out as three of very few European countries specifically to guarantee a right of asylum in their national Constitutions. The origin, wording, and scope of these constitutional provisions vary, depending on historical factors specific to each country. This article examines the right of asylum guaranteed in the Constitutions of France, Italy, and Germany from a historical perspective. It discusses how this right has evolved in all three countries, especially in light of the Refugee Convention and recent European Asylum Legislation. It concludes that however unique and individual constitutional asylum has traditionally been regarded as in France, Italy, and Germany, international obligations and recent European commitments have absorbed its distinctiveness, making it a redundant, almost obsolete, concept.
* Hélène Lambert [Maitrise droit public (Strasbourg), PhD (Exeter)] is Reader in Law, University of Westminster. Francesco Messineo [Dott. giur. (Catania); LL.M. (Cantab.)] is Whewell Scholar in International Law 2007–8 and postgraduate research student at the University of Cambridge (King's College). He was Refugee and Migrants’ Rights Coordinator of Amnesty International Italy, 2004–6. Paul Tiedemann (Dr iur, Dr phil.) is a Judge at the Administrative Court, Frankfurt am Main, and Lecturer at the Justus-Liebig-University-Gießen. He is also Director of the International Association of Refugee Law Judges’ Database. Lambert is grateful to the Nuffield Foundation and the British Academy for their financial support. Many thanks to Dinesh Rajp, Janine Silga, Giusy D’Alconzo, and Donato Messineo for their help and comments. The opinions expressed (and any mistakes) are the authors’ alone.