Bio
Janna Wessels is Associate Professor at the Amsterdam Center for Migration and Refugee Law, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Previously, she was Lecturer and Postdoctoral Researcher at the Chair of Public Law and European Law at Justus Liebig University Giessen. Janna is particularly interested in feminist/queer theory as well as critical legal theory approaches to human rights and migration law and policy.
Her current research examines how States pursue their migration control interests not against, but with human rights law, by shaping the meaning of the law in migration-related jurisprudence. She pursues this line of research in her project ‘Countering human rights from within: Framing State interests in human rights language in migration-related jurisprudence’ (NWO, Veni project, 2022-2026), as well as in the wider framework of the research group ‘Human Rights Discourse in Migration Societies’ (Menschenrechtsdiskurse in der Migrationsgesellschaft, MeDiMi), where she is Principal Investigator for the project 'Who is Empowered by Strasbourg? Migrants and States before the European Court of Human Rights' (DFG, 2022-2026).
Her previous research includes the Mercator Foundation funded project ‘Human Rights challenges to European Migration Policy (REMAP)’ which led to a co-authored monograph published with Hart and Nomos in 2022, and the Horizon 2020 project PROTECT – The Right to International Protection, exploring the legal implications of the UN Global Compacts on Refugees and Migrants. Before joining the University of Giessen, she worked as Research Associate for an Australian Research Council funded international comparative project on Gender-related harms in Refugee law, based at University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Australia and University of British Columbia, Canada. Janna has a PhD in refugee law jointly awarded by the University of Technology Sydney and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Her PhD was supported by a Quentin Bryce Law Doctoral Scholarship and comparatively explored judicial decision-making in sexuality-based asylum claims. A monograph based on this research appeared with CUP in 2021 (paperback 2023). Janna holds Master level degrees from the Universities of Münster and Lille (double degree) as well as Oxford (MSc in Forced Migration). She is editor of the ACMRL Migration Law Series, a member of the editorial board the German Refugee Studies Blog (Fluchtforschungsblog) and co-founder of the Oxford Monitor of Forced Migration (OxMo).
Publications and Projects
Publications
- The Concealment Controversy. ‘Discretion’ Reasoning and the Scope of Refugee Protection, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021, https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108938402 http://www.cambridge.org/9781108837095 (available on Google books) (reprint in paperback 2023).
- Human Rights Challenges to European Migration Policy – The REMAP study, Nomos & Hart Publishing, 2022, https://doi.org/10.5771/9783748926740 (open access) (with Jürgen Bast and Frederik von Harbou)
- ‘Gaps in Human Rights Law? Detention and Area-Based Restrictions in the Proposed Border Procedures in the EU’, 25(3) European Journal of Migration and Law 275-300, 2023, https://doi.org/10.1163/15718166-12340153.
- ‘Deconstructing doctrinal struggles through legal discourse analysis: The example of ‘discretion’ reasoning in refugee law, 7(1) German Journal of Forced Migration and Refugee Studies Z’Flucht, 136-150, 2023, https://dx.doi.org/10.5771/2509-9485-2023-1-136.
- The boundaries of universality - migrant women and domestic violence before the Strasbourg Court, 37(4) Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights 336-358, 2019, https://doi.org/10.1177/0924051919884757.
Projects
Research project: 'Countering human rights from within: Framing State interests in human rights language in migration-related jurisprudence'
- Veni grant, Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), 2022-2026
Research project: 'Who is Empowered by Strasbourg? Migrants and States before the European Court of Human Rights'
- Research grant, German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft DFG), 2022-2026
- The project is part of the interdisciplinary research group "Human Rights Discourse in Migration Societies" (Menschenrechtsdiskurse in der Migrationsgesellschaft, MeDiMi). The aim of the ten PIs of MeDiMi is to determine the scope, forms and consequences of the expansion of human rights discourse in contemporary migration societies.
Outputs/impacts of work with the RLI
Editor of blog series: https://rli.blogs.sas.ac.uk/category/feminist-theory-in-refugee-law/
Author of various blog posts: