Théorie et Pratique de L'Asile en Droit International Classique: Etude Sur les Origines Conceptuelles et Normatives du Droit International des Réfugiés (Theory and Practice of Asylum in General International Law: An Inquiry into the Conceptual and Normative Origins of International Refugee Law)

Abstract

The contemporary regime of refugee protection is part of the long tradition of asylum, whose legal categories have been shaped by general international law. The article aims at analysing the origins of international refugee law through an inquiry into the theory and practice of territorial asylum since the XVIth century until the First World War. Classical authors of the Law of Nations (such as Grotius and Vattel) first played a crucial role for the conceptualisation of asylum. Its legal regime was then endorsed by state practice through the law of extradition, which will further constitute the matrix of the non-refoulement principle.

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Keywords: asylum, refugee law, history, extradition, expulsion, non-refoulement