https://at-ceu.studyguide.timeedit.net/modules/INTR5788?type=COREThe course is designed for non-lawyers. It deals with policy and law to an equal measure. A critical approach both to the 1951 Geneva Convention-based universal asylum system (law and practice) and to the European Union's rules as they have been adopted in May 2024, within the New Pact on Migration and Asylum and the member States' practice is offered. More recent developments will be incorporated until the moment of the given class. The legal issues (who is a refugee, what are their rights, can they be excluded in case they posit a danger to the security or the public order?) are intertwined with the practical ones: (why are they preferred over other migrants, what does it really mean to be a refugee, why are states, especially in the EU, hypocritical: claiming to be humanitarian but in fact exposing arriving persons to cruel treatment?) Are people who escaped from Ukraine a special class? Can climate induced migration be subsumed under the term "refugee"? The overall aim is to offer students a solid legal and empirical foundation for any public debate or professional activity in the field. The mentality of the course leans towards the asylum seekers and the refugees, but avoids bias and glossing over of problems.