GLJ Short: A Topographical Approach to Accountability for Human Rights Violations (GLJ 21:3)
Channel: German Law Journal
Date: 2020-10-07

What can the "spatial turn" in international law offer in pursuit of accountability in migration control? Perceiving the site of a violation from a bird's-eye view and mapping different accountability structures across different legal regimes and regions can identify  blind spots, and it can help to critically assess existing trajectories and explore the wider grid of potential accountability mechanisms.


In this GLJ Shorts episode, Thomas Gammeltoft-Hansen presents his and Nikolas Feith Tan's article "A Topographical Approach to Accountability for Human Rights Violations in Migration Control," which appeared in the Special Issue "Border Justice: Migration and Accountability for Human Rights Violations" in GLJ vol. 21:3 in April 2020. Interview by German Law Journal editor Nora Markard, editing by Marlene Stiller.


00:00 Introduction GLJ Shorts 
00:34 In a nutshell: What is your article about?
01:53 What's at stake, and why now?
03:46 Where do we go from here? 
04:59 About you: What did you only just discover?


Nikolas Feith Tan & Thomas Gammeltoft-Hansen, A Topographical Approach to Accountability for Human Rights Violations in Migration Control, German Law Journal vol. 21:3 (2020), https://doi.org/10.1017/glj.2020.28.


Abstract:
This Article develops what we call a “topographical approach” to accountability in migration control. Drawing on different strands of scholarship, including legal geography, “legal black holes,” and work on strategic litigation, we approach accountability by perceiving the site of a violation from a bird's-eye view and mapping different accountability structures across diverse legal regimes and via a broadened geographic lens. Rather than advocating for accountability in regard to particular regimes or jurisdictions, we argue that multi-pronged approaches are likely to remain the best starting point for ensuring accountability for human rights violations in the context of current migration control practices. The topographical approach thus offers a general framework for identifying existing blind spots, critically assessing existing trajectories, as well as exploring the wider grid of potential accountability mechanisms.

Submitting articles or Special Issue proposals to the German Law Journal:https://germanlawjournal.com/submissions/