Sarah Scott Ford’s new monograph explores how refugee law and human rights law have become ‘entangled’. This framing invites us to follow what this legal interaction sets in motion, beyond discussions of legal pluralism or the integration vs fragmentation of norms debate. This ongoing, dynamic and contested interaction becomes central to understanding efforts of legal mobilization, as well as efforts to contain the reach of law in a time of more pronounced ‘backlash’ to international courts in this area.
The Nordic countries provide a compelling case study, as a region with a long history of compliance but increasingly marked by anti-immigrant politics and policy experimentation. Drawing on interviews with judges, decision makers, senior officials and counsel, Sarah Scott Ford shows how legal practitioners actually work with and interpret international law in their daily work, offering insights into the legal modalities surrounding migrants' rights in Europe.
Sarah Scott Ford is a legal sociologist and postdoctoral researcher at the Center of Excellence for Global Mobility Law (MOBILE) at the University of Copenhagen. Her work focuses on the role of international law in national and institutional contexts, particularly how courts become arenas for shaping migration governance.
Lovisa Häckner Posse will be a commentator for Sarah Scott Ford’s presentation. Häckner Posse is a legal scholar specializing in migration law and public law, with a particular focus on how national courts navigate the tension between domestic political ambitions and supranational legal sources. Her recent doctoral thesis, Integrationskrav i domstol, examines how Swedish migration courts interpret and apply integration requirements in light of international legal obligations. She has also contributed to public consultations on immigration law reforms and published widely on legal conceptualizations in migration governance. Her insights will offer a valuable perspective on the legal dynamics explored in Entangled Asylum in the Nordic Region.