
Working Group on Courts and Refugee Protection
Established in 2021, the RLI Working Group on the Role of Courts in Shaping Access to Asylum provides a space for academics and practitioners engaging with the decisions of international, regional, and domestic courts (and quasi-judicial adjudicative bodies) in their impact refugees and asylum seekers. It is a platform for discussion and the exchange of ideas, and a space where members can receive constructive feedback on work in progress.
Key outputs and activities
- The group meets once every 3 months to discuss a paper of interest, presented by group members or a guest speaker. In 2022, meetings have centred on the theme of the role of human rights treaty monitoring bodies in the asylum context. In future, it is hoped that the group will develop collaborative research outputs and contribute to RLI Declarations.
The Working Group on the Role of Courts in Shaping Access to Asylum is convened currently by Dr Gillian Kane. RLI network members who wish to become involved should email the convenors directly.
Current members

Mariza Avgeri
Associate lecturer in Law, Culture and Society, International Law and Public Law at the Open University, UK

Katia Bianchini
Research Fellow, Law and Anthropology Department, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology

Professor David James Cantor
Director and Professor of Refugee Protection and Forced Migration Studies

Tatiana-Maria Cernicova-Dragomir
PhD student within a joint-PhD program between the Law Faculty of the West University of Timișoara (Romania) and Università degi Studi di Udine (Italy)

Charles Shane Ellison
Clinical Professor of Law/Supervising Attorney, Immigrant Rights Clinic, Duke University School of Law

Valentin Feneberg
Postdoctoral Researcher at the Chair for Public Policy and Law at the Leuphana University Lüneburg (Germany)

Dr. Madalina Moraru
Assistant Professor of EU law, Centre for Judicial Cooperation, European University Institute

Dr. Annick Pijnenburg
Assistant Professor in International and European Law at Radboud University Nijmegen

Chiara Scissa
PhD candidate in Law at the Institute of Law, Politics and Development, Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa

Dr Ciara Smyth
Programme Director of the LL.M in International Migration and Refugee Law and Policy at the Irish Centre for Human Rights

Ricardo Strauch Aveline
Professor of Law and Coordinator of the Legal Practice Center at Faculdade Estácio in Porto Alegre/Brazil

Silvia Talavera Lodos
PhD student in Human Rights and Global Politics, Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies

Kris van der Pas
LL.M, PhD Candidate, Centre for Migration Law, Department of International and European Law, Radboud University

Matthew Zagor
Associate Professor at Australian National University, Director of Law Reform and Social Justice (ANU)

Dr. Reuven (Ruvi) Ziegler
Associate Professor in International Refugee Law
at the University of Reading