(B)OrderS Workshop: Practitioners meet Academics - A Dialogue on Complex Protection Claims and Academic Impact in the Courtroom

When: Monday, June 26, 2023, 10:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Where: Online/Room 2.2, Second Floor, Centre for Commercial Law Studies, Queen Mary University of London 67-69 Lincoln’s Inn Fields London WC2A 3JB

This workshop brings together academics working on asylum and immigration in the UK context with practitioners – solicitors, barristers and judges – to discuss how practitioners use academic work, how academics and practitioners can work more closely together, and how academic work can have real impact in the courtroom.

Attendance is free, but registration is required. Please indicate whether you will be attending in person. Catering for this event will be vegetarian and vegan. Those with additional dietary requirements, please email these to maja.grundler@rhul.ac.uk by 20 June 2023.

Provisional programme

10:00 - Registration and light breakfast (in person only)

10:45 - Welcome

11:00 - Roundtable 1: Improving Protection for Asylum-Seekers with Special Characteristics

Chair: Professor Steve Peers (he/him), University of Essex & Royal Holloway, University of London

Speakers:

• Catriona Jarvis (she/her), Co-Convener of the First Rights and Last Rights Projects of Methoria and former judge of the Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber)
• Colin Yeo (he/him), Barrister, Garden Court Chambers and Editor of the Free Movement website
• Dr Nicolette Busuttil (she/her), SOAS, University of London. Title: Evolving Concepts of Harm in Expulsion Claims: The Role of Disability Human Rights.
• Malak Benslama-Dabdoub (she/her), Queen Mary, University of London. Title: Statelessness in the Refugee Status Determination Procedure.
• Dr Yulia Ioffe (she/her), UCL. Title: Asylum Seeking Children and the Right to Family Reunification.

13:00 - Lunch (in person only)

14:15 - Roundtable 2: Improving Protection for Trafficked and Smuggled Persons

Chair: Professor Violeta Moreno-Lax (she/her), Full Professor of Law and Founding Director of the (B)OrderS Centre at Queen Mary University of London & Ramón y Cajal Professorial Research Fellow, Universitat de Barcelona

Speakers:

• Julian Bild (he/him), Solicitor, Immigration Unit Lead, Anti Trafficking and Labour Exploitation Unit (ATLEU)
• Miranda Butler (she/her), Barrister, Landmark Chambers
• Catherine Meredith (she/her), Barrister, Doughty Street Chambers
• Dr Noemi Magugliani (they/them), University of Kent and British Institute of International and Comparative Law (BIICL). Title: Trafficked Adult Males as (Un)gendered Protection Seekers? Masculinities, Vulnerability, and Victimhood
• Dr Maja Grundler (she/her), Royal Holloway, University of London. Title: Trafficked Persons’ Asylum Claims and their Implications for Smuggled Persons
• Dr Samantha Currie (she/her), University of Liverpool. Title: ‘Legal Aid and Representation of Trafficked Persons’.
•  

16:15 - Coffee Break (in person only)

17:00 - Keynote

• Colin Yeo, Barrister, Garden Court Chambers and Editor of the Free Movement. Title: The Ratio of Research.

18:00 - Drinks reception (in person only)

About (B)OrderS: Centre for the Legal Study of Borders, Mobility and Migration

Founded in 2022, the (B)Orders Centre focuses on the study of bordering, ordering and othering processes through law. It constitutes an excellence hub for intellectual collaboration and the evaluation of the role of law in the making and unmaking of borders and their impact on global (im)mobility. It connects scholars within and beyond Queen Mary Law School to harness existing inter- and multi-disciplinary research into law, borders and (im)mobility and shape future policy and research agendas in response to global challenges.