About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

40 German Y.B. Int'l L. 405 (1997)
Prisoners' Dilemma in Fortress Europe: On the Prospects for Equitable Burden-Sharing in the European Union

handle is hein.journals/gyil40 and id is 406 raw text is: Prisoners' Dilemma in Fortress Europe: On the Prospects for Equitable Burden-Sharing in the European Union By Gregor Noll* Introduction In the ongoing debate on European refugee legislation, the metaphor of 'Fortress Europe' has been introduced to denote the exclusion of protection seekers from ac- cess to the territories of European States. The question whether or not this is a cor- rect description of reality is beyond the scope of this text. The metaphor in itself, however, has some bearing on the arguments presented in the following. Apart from keeping out an enemy, a fortress restricts the mobility of its defenders as well. In that respect, each fortress bears the potential of a prison. Translated to the language of law, this suggests that stipulating norms entails a risk of limiting future choices - not only for their addressee, but also for the legislator, provided the latter is interested in maintaining coherence within the corpus of norms.' This text aims at exploring the relationship between a more equitable sharing of the responsibility for protection seekers2 and the normative framework on refugees and immigration already existing in Europe. Hopefully, it will emerge in the follow- ing to what extent both are consistent with each other. 'The author would like to thank Johannes van der Klaauw, Jens Vedsted-Hansen, the partici- pants of the meeting on International Burden-sharing in Mass Flight Situations, and his col- leagues at the Faculty of Law and the Raoul Wallenberg Institute for Human Rights and Hu- manitarian Law for valuable comments on earlier versions of this paper. 1 Even if law can be changed in an appropriate forum, each change incurs costs that ulti- mately limit the rationality and feasibility of change. 2 In spite of its prejudicial timbre, the term 'burden-sharing' will be used throughout the text. Better terminological alternatives have failed to gain entry into the language used by ac- tors of international law.

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most