James Hathaway (born 1956) is an American-Canadian scholar of international refugee law and related aspects of human rights and public international law. His work is regularly cited by the most senior courts of the common law world, and has played a pivotal role in the evolution of refugee studies scholarship [1]. Among his more critical achievements, Hathaway pioneered the now well-accepted understanding of refugee status as surrogate or substitute protection of human rights (The Law of Refugee Status, 2014); he authored the world's first comprehensive analysis of the human rights of refugees, merging doctrinal study of refugee and human rights law with empirical analysis of the state of refugee protection around the world (The Rights of Refugees under International Law, 2005); and he directed a multidisciplinary and global team of scholars and officials in an initiative to reconceive the structures of refugee protection more fairly to share burdens and responsibilities (Reconceiving International Refugee Law, 1997).
Hathaway earned an LL.B. (Honors) at Osgoode Hall Law School of York University, and a J.S.D. and LL.M. at Columbia University. He was called to the bars of the Canadian provinces of Ontario and New Brunswick. He presently resides in San Francisco, Tucson, and Vancouver.
Since 1998, Hathaway has been the James E. and Sarah A Degan Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School (USA) where he is also the founding Director of the Program in Refugee and Asylum Law. In addition he presently serves as:
Distinguished Visiting Professor of International Refugee Law at the University of Amsterdam
Professorial Fellow at the Melbourne Law School (Australia) [2].
Founding Patron and Senior Advisor of the non-governmental group Asylum Access
Emeritus Counsel on International Protection to the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants.
He has been appointed a visiting professor at the American University in Cairo, and at the Universities of California, Macerata, San Francisco, Stanford, Tokyo, and Toronto.
Prior to joining the Michigan faculty, Hathaway served as:
Founding faculty member of the Ecole de droit de l'Universite de Moncton (Canada)(1981-1984), the world's first French-language common law program of study.
Professor of Law and Associate Dean of York University's Osgoode Hall Law School (1984-1998).
From 2008 until 2010, Hathaway was on leave from Michigan Law School as the Dean and William Hearn Chair of Law at the Melbourne Law School in Australia [3]. At Melbourne he led the Law School's transition to become Australia's first, all-graduate (JD) program. Hathaway's main focus was to establish Melbourne as Australia's leading law school, including by joining leading law schools from around the world in establishing the London-based Centre for Transnational Legal Studies, and launching joint degree programs linking Melbourne with leading law schools on three continents, including the Chinese University of Hong Kong (JD/LLM), New York University (JD/JD and JD/LLM) and Oxford University (JD/BCL).
Hathaway's scholarly work focuses on international human rights and refugees.
Among his more important publications are a treatise on the refugee definition, The Law of Refugee Status: 2nd Edition (with M. Foster) (2014); an interdisciplinary study of refugee law reform, Reconceiving International Refugee Law (1997); and an analysis of the nature of the legal duty to protect refugees The Rights of Refugees under International Law (2005).
Honorary doctorate from Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium (2009).
Hathaway, J. and M. Foster. 2014. The Law of Refugee Status. 2 ed. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press. (1st ed. 1991)
Hathaway, J. 2014. "Food Deprivation: A Basis for Refugee Status?" Social Research International Quarterly 327-339.
Hathaway, J. (ed.) 2013. Human Rights and Refugee Law. Edward Elgar.
T. Dickinson, Hathaway, J., M.W. Reimann, and J. Samuels. 2013. Transnational Law: Cases and Materials. American Casebook Series. St. Paul, Minn.: West.
Hathaway, J, A. North, and J. Pobjoy. 2013. "Supervising the Refugee Convention". Journal of Refugee Studies 323-330.
Hathaway, J. 2012. "Refugees and Asylum". in B. Oppeskin, R. Perruchoud, and J. Redpath-Cross, "Foundations of International Migration Law" Cambridge University Press,at 177-204.
Hathaway, J. and Pobjoy, J. 2011. "Queer Cases Make Bad Law". NYU Journal of International Law and Politics 315-388.
Hathaway, J. 2011. "EU Accountability to International Law: The Case of Asylum". Michigan Journal of International Law 1-8.
Hathaway, J. 2010. Leveraging Asylum Texas International Law Journal 45(3): 503–45.
Hathaway, J. 2009. Pourquoi protéger de l'«arbitraire»? Annales de Droit de Louvain 69(2): 218–24. (Presented as part of Doctorats honoris causa de la Faculté. La protection contre l'arbitraire.)
Hathaway, J. 2008. The human rights quagmire of "human trafficking"' Virginia Journal of International Law 49: 1–59, republished in M. Segrave ed. "Human Trafficking", 2013.
Hathaway, J. 2008. "The Value of Year Books of International Law". 27 Australian Year Book of International Law i-ii.
Hathaway, J. 2007. 'Forced Michigan Studies: Could we Agree Just to 'Date'?' Journal of Refugee Studies 20: 349–369; 385–390.
Hathaway, J. 2007. 'Refugee Solutions or Solutions to Refugeehood?' Refuge 24: 3–10.
Hathaway, J. 2007. 'Why Refugee Law Still Matters' The Melbourne Journal of International Law 8: 89–103.
Hathaway, J. 2006. 'The False Panacea of Offshore Deterrence' Forced Migration Review 26: 56–57.
Hathaway, J. "Are Trafficked Persons Convention Refugees?". International Association of Refugee Law Judges, "Forced Migration and the Advancement of International Protection" at 97-102.
Hathaway, J. 2004. "The Right of States to Repatriate Former Refugees". Ohio State Journal on Dispute Resolution 175-216; reprinted in 26 Immigration and Nationality Law Review, 2006.
Hathaway, J. and W. Hicks, 2004. 'Is there a 'subjective element' in the refugee convention's requirement of 'well-founded fear' Michigan Journal of International Law 26: 505–562.
Hathaway, J. 2003. 'A Forum for the Transnational Development of Refugee Law: The IARJ's Advanced Refugee Law Workshop' International Journal of Refugee Law 15: 418–421.
R. Haines, J. Hathaway and M. Foster, 2003. 'Claims to Refugee Status Based on Voluntary but Protected Actions' International Journal of Refugee Law 15: 430–443.
Hathaway J. and M. Foster, 2003. 'Membership of a Particular Social Group ' International Journal of Refugee Law 15: 477–491.
Hathaway J. and M. Foster, 2003. 'The Causal Connection ("Nexus") to a Convention Ground' International Journal of Refugee Law 15: 461–476.
P. Mathew, J. Hathaway and M. Foster, 2003. 'The Role of State Protection in Refugee Analysis' International Journal of Refugee Law 15: 444–460.
Hathaway J. 2003. 'What's in a Label?' European Journal of Migration and Law 5: 1–21.
Hathaway, J. and Foster, M. 2003. "Internal Protection/Relocation/Flight Alternative as an Aspect of Refugee Status Determination". E. Feller et al. eds. "Refugee Protection in International Law" 353-420.
Hathaway J. 2002. 'Who Should Watch over Refugee Law?' Forced Migration Review 14: 23–26.
Hathaway, J. 2002. "Refugee Law is Not Immigration Law". "Proceedings of the Canadian Council on International Law" 134-157.
Hathaway J. and C. Harvey, 2001. 'Framing Refugee Protection in the New World Disorder' Cornell International Law Journal 34 257–320.
Hathaway J, 2001. 'Interpretation of the Definition of 'Refugee' under Art. 1(A)(2) of the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, with a view to the elaboration of a Community instrument to guide the application of the Refugee Convention pursuant to Art. 63(1)(c) of the Treaty of the European Communities' European Commission.
Hathaway, J. 2001. "Why Supervise the Refugee Convention?". Talk Back 12-13.
Hathaway, J. 2001. "Temporary Protection: Challenge or Solution?". J. Handmaker, L. de la Hunt, and J. Klaaren eds., "Perspectives on Refugee Protection in South Africa.
Hathaway, J. 2000. "The Single Superpower and the Future of International Law". Proceedings of the 94th Annual Meeting of the American Society of International Law 67-69.
Hathaway, J. 2000. "The International Refugee Rights Regime". Collected Courses of the Academy of European Law 91-139.
Hathaway, J. and A. Cusick. 2000. "Refugee Rights Are Not Negotiable". 14(2) Georgetown Immigration Law Journal 481-539.
Hathaway, J. 2000. "America, Defender of Democratic Legitimacy?" 11(1) European Journal of International Law 121-134.
