Research On Asylum In International Law

Asylum is a complex and important problem in international law. No matter forthe purpose of humanity or maintenance of international order, dealing with issues ofasylum properly is very important. Currently, no convention on asylum has beenreached by international community, and the implementation of asylum relies on thedomestic laws of the states and regional treaties. Under such background, the purposeof this Article is to study the meaning and content of asylum in contemporaryinternational law, and to provide suggestions to the establishment and improvement ofChina’s asylum system.This Article has four chapters. There are about30,000words in total.Chapter I is divided into two parts. Part one introduces the history of asylum, andthe meaning and categories of asylum in international law. Part two comes up with theopinion that, along with the development of asylum, the people protected by asylumhas been changed from political offense to political refugee as defined in the1951Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and the1967Protocol relating to theStatus of Refugees.Chapter II studies the legal basis for asylum from the perspectives ofinternational human rights laws, regional treaties and domestic laws of states.Although international human rights laws do not prescribe asylum as internationalobligations of states, their content and spirit of protecting human rights have exertedsignificant influences on asylum system. Regional treaties and domestic laws of states are direct source of law for asylum. Through analysis on such regional treaties anddomestic laws, this chapter further confirms the opinion that the people protected byasylum are political refugee as defined in the1951Convention relating to the Statusof Refugees and the1967Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees.Chapter III analyzes the main content of asylum. Firstly, the chapter discussesthe treatment to asylum seeks in the respect of non-refoulement and economic andsocial rights. Secondly, this chapter discusses the review of asylum application fromaspects of substance and procedure. The part on substance elaborates the criteria fordetermining refugee status and the conditions for refusing to grant refugee status; thepart on procedure elaborates the minimum requirements of international organizationand regional treaties for asylum procedures. Lastly, this chapter discusses the rightsenjoyed by refugees after being granted asylum, which include right of not beingexpelled, right of work, social welfare and other rights.Chapter IV discusses asylum system and refugee protection in China. The firstpart of this chapter brief introduces the problems and legislation relating to refugee inChina. The second part of this chapter proposes recommendations on improvement ofour country’s refugee asylum system. The recommendations include specifying thecriteria for determining refugee status, improving the asylum procedure, andproviding treatment conditions of refugee in legislation.