Asylum, Immigration and Refugee Law

While the process of legal research in any jurisdiction follows the same basic steps, United States legal sources differ from foreign legal sources. There are also numerous helpful resources specifically for international law as well as for asylum, immigration and refugee law research.

Regardless of the jurisdiction, it is best to start any legal research project with secondary sources. Secondary legal sources include treatises, loose-leaf services and law review articles. There are many US secondary sources as well as international and foreign secondary sources.

If you are preparing a paper, the Research Road Map: How to Prepare Your Note, Cert. or Seminar Paper will guide you, step by step, from choosing a topic through making sure your research is up to date. There are particular resources which are of assistance with selecting a topic in asylum, immigration and or refugee law.

Selecting a Topic in Asylum, Immigration or Refugee Law

One of the most helpful resources for selecting a topic for a research paper in asylum, immigration or refugee law, or actually any topic, is news stories. Take a look at the news or press releases on web sites for international organizations and government agencies which deal with human rights, refugees and migration such as:

 

Researching the Law of the United States

Finding US Primary Law

Legislation: Current United States legislation promulgated by Congress can be found in the statutory code of the United States.

Administrative law: Administrative law is generated by the executive branch of the federal government, and includes regulations, executive orders of the President, and documents generated by administrative agencies.

Regulations which direct federal agencies implementing federal statutes are found in:

Executive Orders of the President can be found in:

Administrative agencies related to immigration include:

Case Law

Appeals from the BIA are heard in the federal courts. The standard for appeals from administrative courts is "abuse of discretion." These decisions, which are selectively reported, can be found:

  • Digest: Use West's Federal Practice Digest (Law Indexes) to locate cases
  • Federal Supplement and Federal Supplement 2nd (Pappas).
  • LexisNexis (GENFED:COURTS)
  • Westlaw (ALLFEDS).

Forms and sample documents

  • BCIS Forms and Fees
  • Federal Immigration Laws and Regulations (Law Reserve and Law Annex KF4805.99 U54)
  • Steel on Immigration Law (Law Annex KF 4819 S74)
  • Immigration Procedures Handbook (Law Reserve KF 4819 I48

US Secondary Sources

  • Books: Use the online catalog to search for books and loose-leaf services related to immigration and refugee law.
    • Some immigration related books include:
      • Kurzban's Immigration Law Sourcebook (2002 and 2000 Law Annex KF4819.3 .K87 and 1998: Law Reserve KF4819.3 .K87)
      • Immigration Law and Procedure (Law Annex KF4819 .G67)
      • International Immigration and Nationality Law (Law Annex
        K3275 .A48)
      • Immigration Law in a Nutshell (Law Reserve KF 4819.3 .W4)
      • Interpreter Releases (Law Annex KF 4802 I57)
      • Immigration Monitoring Report (Law Pappas)
      • Immigration Newsletter (Law Annex JV6001 A1 I46)
      • Press releases available at government web sites, like the BCIS or the Department of State related to your topic
      • BCIS Handbooks, Manuals and Policy Guidance available at the BCIS web site.
    • Asylum and refugee books at BU include:
      • AILA'S Asylum Primer: A practical guide to U.S. asylum law and procedure, Law Civil Clinic KF4836 .G47 1998
      • Human Rights Protection for Refugees, Asylum-Seekers, and Internally Displaced Persons: A guide to international mechanisms, Law Annex K3230.R45 H867 2002
      • Refugee Law in Context: the exclusion clause, Law Annex K3268.3 .R44 1999
      • Refugee Law and Policy: A comparative and international approach, Law Reserve KF4836.A7 M87 2002
      • Who is a Refugee?: A comparative case law study, Law Annex K3274 .W46 1997
  • Periodicals: Legal periodicals, including law review article, are great resources for starting your research. You can find legal periodical article by searching:
    • Legaltrac: An index of law review articles from 1980-present). Also on Westlaw (LRI) and LexisNexis (LGLND).
    • Full text law review databases on Westlaw and LexisNexis. However, be aware, the date coverage of law review articles varies greatly. Also, searching full-text law review articles can be inefficient, as a search can return an extremely large numbers of articles.
    • Hein Online: full-text law journals, many of which are not available on LexisNexis or Westlaw, can be searched or browsed and printed in .pdf format.
    • News: you can search newspapers on Westlaw and LexisNexis to find related newspaper articles.

Researching International Law

The sources of public international law are international agreements, customary law, general principles of law, judicial decisions and academic writings. Most of the primary documents of interest will be international agreements. International agreements, or treaties, can be bilateral, between two countries, or multilateral, among several countries.

International Primary Sources

  • Judicial Decisions

    • International judicial decisions include:

International Secondary Sources

  • Books: Use the online catalog to search for books and loose-leaf services related to international immigration and refugee law.

Researching the Law of a Foreign Jurisdiction

Asylum, Immigration and Refugee Law Resources

For further information on researching asylum, immigration and refugee law, see section 8 of Specialized Legal Research (Law Reserve and Law Ref Desk KF240 S63 1987).

Some helpful web sites for asylum, immigration and refugee research include:

Page maintained by Terri Gallego-O'Rourke
Last updated: February 2006