@techreport{GuildCostelloMorenoLax, type = {Working Paper}, author = {Guild, Elspeth and Costello, Cathryn and Moreno-Lax, Violeta}, title = {Implementation of the 2015 Council Decisions establishing provisional measures in the area of international protection for the benefit of Italy and of Greece}, abstract = {This study, commissioned by the European Parliament's Policy Department for Citizens' Rights and Constitutional Affairs at the request of the LIBE Committee, examines the EU's mechanism of relocation of asylum seekers from Greece and Italy to other Member States. It examines the scheme in the context of the Dublin System, the hotspot approach, and the EU-Turkey Statement, recommending that asylum seekers' interests, and rights be duly taken into account, as it is only through their full engagement that relocation will be successful. Relocation can become a system that provides flexibility for Member States and local host communities, as well as accommodating the agency and dignity of asylumseekers. This requires greater cooperation from receiving States, and a clearer role for a single EU legal and institutional framework to organise preference matching and rationalise efforts and resources overall.}, language = {en} } @techreport{GuildCostelloGarlicketal., type = {Working Paper}, author = {Guild, Elspeth and Costello, Cathryn and Garlick, Madeline and Moreno-Lax, Violeta}, title = {Enhancing the Common European Asylum System and Alternatives to Dublin}, abstract = {Upon request by the LIBE committee, this study examines the reasons why the Dublin system of allocation of responsibility for asylum seekers does not work effectively from the viewpoint of Member States or asylum-seekers. It argues that as long as it is based on the use of coercion against asylum seekers, it cannot serve as an effective tool to address existing imbalances in the allocation of responsibilities among Member States. The EU is faced with two substantial challenges: first, how to prevent unsafe journeys and risks to the lives of people seeking international protection in the EU; and secondly, how to organise the distribution of related responsibilities and costs among the Member States. This study addresses these issues with recommendations aimed at resolving current practical, legal and policy problems.}, language = {en} } @techreport{GuildCostelloGarlicketal., type = {Working Paper}, author = {Guild, Elspeth and Costello, Cathryn and Garlick, Madeline and Moreno-Lax, Violeta and Mouzourakis, Minos}, title = {New Approaches, Alternative Avenues and Means of Access to Asylum Procedures for Persons Seeking International Protection}, abstract = {Upon request by the LIBE committee, this study examines the workings of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS), in order to assess the need and potential for new approaches to ensure access to protection for people seeking it in the EU, including joint processing and distribution of asylum seekers. Rather than advocating the addition of further complexity and coercion to the CEAS, the study proposes a focus on front-line reception and streamlined refugee status determination, in order to mitigate the asylum challenges facing Member States, and guarantee the rights of asylum seekers and refugees according to the EU acquis and international legal standards.}, language = {en} } @incollection{CostelloMorenoLax, author = {Costello, Cathryn and Moreno-Lax, Violeta}, title = {The Extraterritorial Application of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights: From Territoriality to Facticity, the Effectiveness Model}, series = {Commentary on the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights}, booktitle = {Commentary on the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights}, editor = {Peers, Steve and Hervey, Tamara and Kenner, Jeff and Ward, Angela}, publisher = {Hart Publishing}, address = {London}, doi = {10.5771/9783845259055_1700}, publisher = {Hertie School}, pages = {1700 -- 1727}, language = {en} } @techreport{MorenoLax, type = {Working Paper}, author = {Moreno-Lax, Violeta}, title = {From 'Boat Migration' to Maritime Abandonment: The Logics of Necro-Geo-Legal Control}, publisher = {SSRN}, doi = {10.2139/ssrn.5988216}, pages = {24}, abstract = {This chapter traces evolving approaches to 'boat migration' in cross-regional perspective and problematises its relationship with human rights at sea, especially the right to life. Through a necropolitical critique, it unveils how maritime border enforcement, particularly by countries of destination, endangers respect for and adherence to the right to life by incorporating the risk of dying as a means of migration management. This is mediated by law, embedding the technique within the juridical system. The mechanism draws on geography and the dangers associated with the maritime space as a biopolitical resource, allowing States to express their power to 'make live and to let die' with minimal intervention. State authority is deployed passively/indirectly, but nonetheless effectively, impeding human rights protection-if not supressing life altogether. By connecting necropolitical power with geostrategic forms of control operated through law, States deploy what I call a necro-geo-legal apparatus that is characterised by a combination of tactical disengagement from search and rescue (SAR), as provided for in the maritime conventions, and mechanisms of 'organised abandonment' at sea. The chapter, by mapping developments in the US, Australia and the Mediterranean, offers a taxonomy of the various modalities of necro-geo-legal control, practiced through replacement, retreat or rejection, illuminating how the (mis)use of law turns the sea into a 'deathscape' exploited for the exercise of sovereign power vis-{\`a}-vis 'boat migrants'.}, language = {en} } @article{CıdamCortesGuendoğduetal., author = {{\c{C}}{\i}dam, {\c{C}}iğdem and Cort{\´e}s, Luba and G{\"u}ndoğdu, Ayten and Moreno-Lax, Violeta}, title = {Solidarity as Legal Mobilization}, series = {AJIL Unbound}, volume = {119}, journal = {AJIL Unbound}, publisher = {Cambridge University Press (CUP)}, doi = {10.1017/aju.2025.5}, pages = {19 -- 24}, abstract = {The criminalization of humanitarianism has become prevalent in the Global North. Overbroad definitions of the crimes of migrant smuggling and the facilitation of irregular migration are commonplace in Europe and the United States, despite their well-known perverse effects on the rights of organizers and civil society at large. The "crimmigration" paradigm is so pervasive that there is little debate across the political spectrum on the legitimacy of a criminal law response to solidarity-based engagements with non-citizens, especially those in an irregular situation. Countries of destination have normalized hostility vis-{\`a}-vis (irregular) migrants and their allies and firmly entrenched it in the legal regime. By contrast, this essay aims to illustrate how law can paradoxically also serve as a medium to articulate solidaristic action following an egalitarian conception and mobilization of legal norms. Challenging state-centric visions, such forms of action transform law into a space of coming together across power divisions, jointly organizing, and collectively countering injustice.}, language = {en} } @misc{GrundlerMorenoLaxBusuttil, author = {Grundler, Maja and Moreno-Lax, Violeta and Busuttil, Nicolette}, title = {Special Issue: Research and Practice Dialogues on Complex Protection Claims - A 'Translational' Agenda}, series = {Journal of Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Law}, volume = {39}, journal = {Journal of Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Law}, number = {1}, pages = {11 -- 21}, language = {en} } @article{DelanoAlonsoMorenoLaxRamjiNogales, author = {D{\´e}lano Alonso, Alexandra and Moreno-Lax, Violeta and Ramji-Nogales, Jaya}, title = {Introduction to the Symposium on Transdisciplinary Approaches to Migrant Solidarity in Theory, Law, and Praxis}, series = {AJIL Unbound}, volume = {119}, journal = {AJIL Unbound}, publisher = {Cambridge University Press (CUP)}, doi = {10.1017/aju.2025.1}, pages = {1 -- 6}, language = {en} } @article{MorenoLax, author = {Moreno-Lax, Violeta}, title = {Commission proposal for a revised Facilitation Directive: Targeted substitute impact assessment}, publisher = {EPRS: European Parliamentary Research Service}, address = {Brussels}, doi = {10.2861/0337452}, pages = {ix, 104}, abstract = {This study constitutes a targeted substitute impact assessment of the Commission's proposal for a revised Facilitation Directive (COM(2023) 755), presented on 28 November 2023 as part of a package to address migrant smuggling. It provides a critical review of the existing legal and policy framework at EU level and its shortcomings regarding transposition and implementation. It also undertakes a critical and thorough appraisal of the proposed objectives and measures in terms of coherence, effectiveness and efficiency, including with a view to assessing the adequacy of the interplay between this proposal and the related draft Regulation on enhancing police cooperation (COM(2023) 754). It highlights the misalignment of the proposal with relevant international and key EU law standards. It raises concerns about definitional issues, the lack of sufficient human rights safeguards, and the absence of a clear distinction between facilitation offences and the legitimate provision of services and humanitarian assistance. The study also examines the legality and proportionality of the proposed measures and stresses the need for a thorough evaluation of wider impacts on civic space and democracy at large.}, language = {en} }