Episode 35: Human Mobility and International Law

Migration has become a defining issue of our time, visibly
shaping political discourse, legal systems, and public
imaginaries. Yet for all its salience, international law’s
capacity to respond to the complexities of human mobility remains
fractured, fragile, and often inadequate. In this episode, we
take a hard look at the international legal architecture
surrounding migration: where it comes from, where it fails, and
what alternative frameworks might exist beyond the dominant focus
on non-refoulement and transnational criminal law. We begin with
a frank assessment: despite landmark treaties like the 1951
Refugee Convention, international law provides no comprehensive
regime for facilitating – much less fostering – human mobility.
Instead, migrants are increasingly subject to carceral and
criminalizing legal responses, while international legal regimes
defer to the sovereignty and discretion of receiving states.


Joining us for this episode are three experts in global migration
law and governance: Jaya Ramji Nogales (Temple Law School in
Philadelphia), Noora Lori (Boston University), and Amanda Bisong
(European Center for Development Policy Management). Together,
they offer critical insights on how legal scholars and
practitioners might better understand, challenge, and reimagine
the role of international law in regulating – and enabling –
mobility across borders.





Scholarship mentioned includes Bina Fernandez’s ‘Traffickers,
Brokers, Employment Agents, and Social Networks: The Regulation
of Intermediaries in the Migration of Ethiopian Domestic Workers
to the Middle East’ (2013) 47 International Migration Review
814–43 and Petra Molnar’s The Walls Have Eyes: Surviving
Migration in the Age of Artificial Intelligence (2024).