Immigration/Asylum Law & International Refugee Law: IALS Library Guides

Guide last updated November 2023

This guide aims to give a brief introduction to the Library's holdings on  Immigration & Asylum/ International Refugee Law. Please consult the Library Catalogue for complete information on current titles and locations. If you require further assistance please contact us.

Monday-Friday 9:30-17:00
Tel (0)20 7862 5790
Email ials@sas.ac.uk

This Subject Guide only lists a selection of Library resources on Immigration & Asylum/International Refugee Law. To find additional resources you will need to search the Library Catalogue, which covers the complete holdings of the Library. It is possible to search for books, journals and series of law reports by author, title or keyword. Please note it is not possible to search for individual chapters, journal articles or legislation (e.g. individual Acts or SIs).

IALS Library is mainly open access and readers are able to browse the shelves in the main collection. There are two main exceptions to this:

• Older items (marked RES or Depository on the catalogue record) are kept in the closed basement.
• Key texts for LLM students are often kept in the Short Loan collection.

Please request these at the Library Enquiry Desk.

For more information on understanding the catalogue record and further guidance on the location of materials please refer to our guide Classmarks and the Location of Resources in the Library.

The Library classifies textbooks either by jurisdiction (GO13, GA2 etc.) or according to subject area, examples of which include Comparative Law (SB), Public International Law (SG) and Private International Law/ Conflict of Laws (SH). All classmark sections have a FOL section for oversize volumes, which is located on the same floor of the Library.

When you are searching the Library Catalogue for books, please note that only the current edition is held on the open shelves or in the Short Loan collection. IALS has a rich collection of previous editions held in the closed basement and these will display a Depository number on the catalogue. Please request previous editions from the Library Enquiry Desk.

Immigration/asylum material for England & Wales is shelved at GA2.C.5
Immigration/asylum material for the European Union is shelved at GO1.A1.C.5
International migration material is shelved at SG85

The following list represents a selection of textbooks on immigration and migration law. Please check the catalogue records for further information and location. Titles marked as e-books may also be available in print. Access from home requires your IALS library barcode and your  family name.  E books with 'open access' status on the catalogue are available to all users of this guide. 

Immigration and asylum law

Allen, F.  and others       Immigration law handbook 11th ed. 2023

Clayton, G.   Immigration and asylum law   9th ed. 2021

​Giuffré, M.  The readmission of asylum seekers under international law   2020 Bloomsbury (e-book)

Harrison, S. and others  Immigration law & practice in the United Kingdom  10th ed. 2021

Jesse, M. European Societies, Migration, and the Law: The 'Others' Amongst 'Us'. 2021, Cambridge Core (e-book)

Mitsilegas, V. et al. Securitising Asylum Flows: Deflection, Criminalisation and Challenges for Human Rights. 2020. Brill (e-book)

Peers, S. EU immigration and asylum law (3 vols.) 2012-2015

International and comparative refugee law

Chetail, V. International migration law 2019

Foster, M. Statelessness and international refugee law 2019 OUP (e-book)

Fripp, E. Nationality and statelessness in the international law of refugee status 2016

Goodwin-Gill, G. & McAdam, J. The refugee in international law  2021  OUP (e-book)

Hathaway, J. The rights of refugees under international law  2nd ed. 2021 CUP (e-book) 

Hathaway, J. & Foster, M.  Law of refugee status 2014

Juss, S. Research handbook on international refugee law 2019 Elgar  (e-book)

Mann, I. Humanity at sea:maritime migration and the foundations of international law 2016

Moreno-Lax, V.  & Papastravidris, E. Boat refugees and migrants at sea: a comprehensive approach: integrating maritime security with human rights 2017

Moreno-Lax, V. Accessing asylum in Europe: extraterritorial border controls and refugee rights under EU law 2017

Pobjoy, J. The child in international refugee law 2017 CUP (e-book)

Scott, M.  Climate change, disasters and the refugee convention  CUP 2020 (e-book)

Simeon, J.C. The UNHCR and the Supervision of International Refugee Law. 2013. CUP (e-book)

Storey, H.  The refugee definition in international law  OUP  2023 

IALS Library holds a wide selection of current serial titles on immigration law  from many different jurisdictions. These are located on all floors of the Library. Some titles are only in printed volumes while others or available in both formats. For more detailed help, please refer to the guide on Finding journal articles.

The following titles focus particularly on immigration law but there may be relevant articles in less specialised journals:

Amnesty International report   open access

European journal of migration and law   e-journal

Georgetown immigration law journal     e-journal

Human rights law journal

Human rights quarterly  e-journal

Immigration and nationality law review e-journal

Journal of social welfare and family law  e-journal 

Tolley's immigration, asylum and nationality law  e-journal

If you are interested in legislation or cases concerning immigration law issues in specific countries you will need to consult the legislation or law reports for that jurisdiction.

Consult the Library Catalogue to find the general classmark for the country you require. Consult consolidations of legislation, digests or indexes to trace particular acts or cases.

Academic users may also use databases like Lexis/Westlaw to find UK, US, EU or international decisions. For further information please refer to Law Databases or ask at the Library Enquiry Desk.

You may also find it useful to refer to our guides on finding Legislation and Cases or check to see if we have a Jurisdiction Research Guide for the country you are interested in.

Eagle-i is an internet portal maintained and updated by IALS library staff. It allows you to search for quality web resources on immigration law.

A valuable free source is BAILII, the British and Irish Legal information Institute which is based and maintained at IALS. It provides free access to full text UK judgments and legislation on a wide range of subjects including Immigration Law and also links to other free World Law databases. Jurisdictions covered in these resources include Commonwealth countries eg. AustLII  (Australia) and CanLII (Canada), France, Germany, Italy, the USA and South Africa.

The following represent a sample of the available quality individual web resources on Immigration Law:

Electronic Immigration Network (EIN)

https://www.ein.org.uk/

European Council on Refugees and Exiles
http://www.ecre.org/

Colin Fong ‘Researching the Legal Aspects of Asylum Seekers and Refugees in Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom’ (Globalex Guide. Updated 2016)
http://www.nyulawglobal.org/globalex/Legal_aspects_asylum_refugees_Australia_Canada_UK1.htm

Human Rights Watch. Independent NGO
http://www.hrw.org/home

International Journal of Refugee Law. Gives access to abstracts and titles of articles from 1989-current. Subscribers have full text access from 1996 but a selection of more recent articles are Open Access.
http://ijrl.oxfordjournals.org/content/by/year/index

International Organization for Migration
http://unitedkingdom.iom.int/

Migration Policy Institute: Migration Information Source

https://www.migrationpolicy.org/programs/migration-information-source