This book argues that states have a special obligation to offer asylum as a form of reparation to refugees for whose flight they are responsible. It shows the great relevance of reparative justice, and the importance of the causes of contemporary forced migration, for our understanding of states' responsibilities to refugees. Part I explains how this view presents an alternative to the dominant humanitarian approach to asylum in political theory and some practice. Part II outlines the conditions under which asylum should act as a form of reparation, arguing that a state owes this form of asylum to refugees where it bears responsibility for the unjustified harms that they experience, and where asylum is the most fitting form of reparation available. Part III explores some of the ethical implications of this reparative approach to asylum for the workings of states' asylum systems and the international politics of refugee protection.

Provides a novel theoretical consideration - the extent to which states owe asylum to refugees as a form of reparation Offers a fresh account of states' responsibilities to refugees that is theoretically rich and practically relevant Addresses conflicts and ethical tensions involved in refugees' arrival, offering a distinctive conception of asylum

Autorentext
James Souter is a lecturer at the School of Politics and International Studies, University of Leeds, UK. He holds a DPhil from the Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford, and has published articles in academic journals such as Political Studies, International Affairs and the Journal of Social Philosophy.

Inhalt
Introduction.- I. Asylum as a Form of Reparation.-Chapter 1: Asylum and its Moral Functions: A Pluralist Account.- Chapter 2: Asylum as Restitution, Compensation, and Satisfaction.- II. The Conditions of Asylum as Reparation.- Chapter 3: Causal and Outcome Responsibility.- Chapter 4: Unjustified Harm and Dirty Hands.- Chapter 5: Reparative Fittingness and Capability.- III. Domestic and International Implications.- Chapter 6: Reparative Justice and the Prioritisation of Refugees Chapter 7: Reparative Justice and Refugee Burden-Sharing.- Conclusion.