Academic interests
- Refugee law
- Migration law
- Human rights law
- Public international law
- EU law
- Schengen cooperation
- International migration
- Türkiye
Özlem Gürakar Skribeland participates as postdoctoral researcher in the BEYOND project funded by the European Research Council. Her current research explores the interaction and mutual influence between the international refugee regime and key refugee-hosting states that are not parties to the Refugee Convention.
Gürakar Skribeland leads the Thematic group on migration at The Faculty of Law, University of Oslo. She is also a research affiliate at the London-based Refugee Law Initiative.
Teaching
Gürakar Skribeland is responsible for the course RSOS2958/4958 – International Migration: Sovereigns, Borders, Control.
In addition, she teaches as part of the following courses:
- JUR1120/5120 – Utlendingsrett
- JUR1530/5530 – Refugee and Asylum Law
- JUS2111 – Statsforfatningsrett, folkerett og menneskerettigheter
- NORINT0500 – Norwegian Life and Society - samfunnskurset
Gürakar Skribeland supervises student theses in her areas of academic interests.
Background
Gürakar Skribeland grew up in Istanbul, Türkiye. She obtained her Bachelor of Laws degree (LLB) from Galatasaray University, Türkiye, and did her Master of Laws (LLM) as a Fulbright Scholar at Harvard Law School, USA.
She has a PhD from the University of Oslo. Her thesis Forced Return of Migrants to Transit Countries was part of the MIGMA project (Transnationalism from above and below: Migration management and how migrants manage) funded by the Research Council of Norway. Taking the EU Return Directive as a starting point and frame, and using return to Türkiye as a case, Gürakar Skribeland analysed in this thesis the lawfulness of returning irregular migrants by force to transit countries.
She is qualified as a lawyer in Türkiye, England and the USA, and has previously practiced law at international law firms in Istanbul and London.
Publications
Özlem Gürakar Skribeland, Forced “Return” of Migrants to Transit and Fourth Countries, Brill (forthcoming, 2026)
Özlem Gürakar Skribeland, “Governing Refugees through Labels”, in Borhan Uddin Khan and Jahid Hossain Bhuiyan (eds.), Routledge Handbook of International Refugee Law, Routledge (forthcoming, 2026)
Özlem Gürakar Skribeland, “UNHCR–Türkiye Relations Over Time: Fluctuations, Continuities and Strategic Use of Informality”, Refugee Survey Quarterly (2025)
Maja Janmyr, Özlem Gürakar Skribeland and Arjumand Bano Kazmi (eds.), Non-Signatory States in International Refugee Law, Brill (2025)
Maja Janmyr and Özlem Gürakar Skribeland, “Studying Non-Signatory States: A Shared Ambition, Complementary Approaches”, in Maja Janmyr, Özlem Gürakar Skribeland and Arjumand Bano Kazmi (eds.), Non-Signatory States in International Refugee Law, Brill (2025)
Özlem Gürakar Skribeland, “The Turkish Council of State’s Engagement with International Refugee Law in Cases Involving ‘Non-European’ Refugees”, International Journal of Refugee Law (2024)
Özlem Gürakar Skribeland, “Refugee Protection and Human Rights”, in Borhan Uddin Khan and Jahid Hossain Bhuiyan (eds.), Human Rights after 75 Years of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Reflections from the Global South, Brill (2024)
Özlem Gürakar Skribeland, “Addressing Challenges to Integrating Refugees in the Turkish Labour Market”, Forced Migration Review, 71 (2023)
Özlem Gürakar Skribeland (2022), Forced Return of Migrants to Transit Countries – A Case of Competing Sovereigns, Series of Dissertations Submitted to the Faculty of Law, University of Oslo, No. 172, ISSN 1890-2375
Özlem Gürakar Skribeland, “Turkey: Party or Non-party State?”, Forced Migration Review, 67 (2021)
Maja Janmyr and Özlem Gürakar Skribeland, “Human Rights References in Norway’s Readmission Agreements: (How) Do They Protect?”, Nordic Journal of Human Rights, 38(1) (2020)
Özlem Gürakar Skribeland, “Ses ve Görüntü Kayıtlarının Delil Değeri [Admissibility of Video and Audio Recordings as Evidence]”, Essays in Honor of Prof. Dr. Çetin Özek, Istanbul (2004)