Research Centre Immigration & Asylum Law

The past weeks will be remembered as a tipping point when Germany joined the camp of governments supporting strict asylum policies. For the EU, the coming months will be a period of high risk, especially if the German government decides to refuse entry to asylum applicants at internal Schengen borders. Is that legally possible? And would such a step kill the Common European Asylum System? Professor Thym presents his answers in an OPEN-ED FOR DER SPIEGEL (‘Kann der »Merz-Plan« von Zurückweisungen…

The adoption of the third generation of EU asylum legislation has been celebrated as a historic breakthrough. Notwithstanding the significance of these measures, developments within Germany and at the European level indicate that further reflection about the way forward is warranted, thus transcending the widespread focus on the path-dependent continuation of complex procedure in individual cases which had been designed by the classic destination countries in Northern Europe and was projected…

A terror attack committed by a Syrian national turned the spotlight on the legal pitfalls and practical dysfunctionalities of the Common European Asylum System: the authorities had tried without success to return the murderer to Bulgaria. The event accelerated a heated German debate about the reform of German and European asylum policy. Professor Thym actively joined this debate in the prominent PUBLIC TELEVISION TALK SHOW FORMAT ‘MARKUS LANZ’ (in German). The consequences of the attack also…