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68 Hastings L.J. 609 (2016-2017)
Migration Emergencies

handle is hein.journals/hastlj68 and id is 642 raw text is: Migration Emergencies JAYA RAMJI-NOGALES* Migration emergencies are a commonplace feature in contemporary headlines. Pundits offer a variety of causes provoking these emergencies. Some highlight the deadly risks of these journeys for the migrants. Many more express alarm at the potential threats these mass influxes pose to their destination countries. But few question whether these migrant flows are, as commonly portrayed, unexpected and unpredictable. This Article asks whether these migration emergencies are surprising events or the logical and foreseeable outcomes of the structural failures of the global migration system. In particular, it interrogates the architecture of international migration law, arguing that the current framework is unsustainable in today's globalized world. This is a story about the legal construction of crisis. Several literatures offer compelling insights into the construction of migration crises, but fail to explore the crucial role of international migration law. Scholars of forced migration view the legal framework as an inadequate response to crises but not as a root cause. Others have highlighted the role that crises play in the development of international law, demonstratring how crises impact law, but failing to examine how law helps to construct those crises. This Article begins to unpack the role of international migration law in constructing migration crises. International migration law, because it is codified in written instruments and nearly impossible to alter, entrenches sociocultural frames that might otherwise be substantially more flexible. International law has constructed a deeply path-dependent approach to international migration that not only obscures systemic inequality but also consumes alternate conceptions of morality. In response to this critique, this Article suggests a new approach to global migration law that aims to govern migrant flows more effectively. In short, it aims to establish international migration law as a separate subfield of international law rather than the afterthought that it currently represents. * I. Herman Stern Professor of Law and Co-Director, Institute for International Law and Public Policy, Temple University, Beasley School of Law. With many thanks to those who provided generous feedback on this project at various stages: Diane Marie Amann, Ash Bali, Angela Banks, Jane Baron, Dan Bodansky, Pam Bookman, Janie Chuang, Harlan Cohen, Audrey Comstock, Margaret deGuzman, Jean Galbraith, Daniel Kelemen, Elizabeth Keyes, Itamar Mann, Fernanda Nicola, Stephen Park, Peter Spiro, Chantal Thomas, Ralph Wilde, and David Zaring, as well as participants in the American Society of International Law's 2015 Mid-Year Research Forum, the Arizona State University International Law Colloquium, the Case Western Faculty Colloquium, the Drexel Faculty Colloquium, the University of Georgia Faculty Colloquium, the St. John's International Law Colloquium, and the Washington and Lee Faculty Colloquium. Many thanks to Alicia Anguiano, Rhiannon DiClemente, Karen Hoffmann, Nour Kawatani, Andrea Saylor, and Megan Stupak for terrific research assistance. Many thanks as always to Josette Finnegan for her good-natured assistance with numerous administrative tasks, without which this project could not have been completed. [6091

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