Does the human right to self-determination also protect attitudes that are critical of or opposed to immigration?
Michael Lysander Fremuth will tackle this question in his upcoming presentation.
In human rights law, migration is typically approached from the perspective of balancing the rights of migrants—often individuals in situations of vulnerability—with state sovereignty—defined as the authority to protect state interests by regulating the lawful entry, residence, and departure of foreign nationals. However, inspired by the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) advisory opinions on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, in which the Court found a violation of the right to self-determination of the Palestinian people resulting from policies risking alterations to its demographic composition, Fremuth examines as a generalized question whether the collective human right to self-determination also encompasses a society’s self-conception as an open or closed society. The conversation will explore the potential implications of the ICJ decision for the balancing exercise if this traditional reliance on state interest is elevated to a competing collective right to self-determination.
Speakers
Michael Lysander Fremuth is a generalist in public international and human rights law. He is Full Professor for Fundamental and Human Rights at the Law Faculty of the University of Vienna, Scientific Director of the Master Program in Human Rights, Co-Director of the Research Network on Democracy and Human Rights, as well as Coordinator for the faculty’s cooperation with Ukraine. Furthermore, Fremuth is director of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Fundamental and Human Rights, one of the largest research institutes of its kind in Europe that combines basic and applied research to generate added value and societal impact.
Gerald Neuman (respondent/moderator) is the Director of Harvard Law School’s Human Rights Program, and the J. Sinclair Armstrong Professor of International, Foreign, and Comparative Law at HLS. Neuman teaches courses in international human rights law, immigration and nationality law, and U.S. constitutional law. From 2011 to 2014, he served as a Member of the UN Human Rights Committee. Neuman holds a JD from HLS and a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
This event is co-sponsored by The Program on Law and Society in the Muslim World and The Human Rights Program at Harvard Law School.