Editor-in-Chief
Jane McAdam
Editorial Board
About the journal
The International Journal of Refugee Law is the leading peer-reviewed journal on all aspects of international law relating to forced migration …
Find out moreSpecial issues and supplements
The International Journal of Refugee Law has published many supplements and special issues over the years, which we’ve listed together on one page for quick access.
In tribute to Guy S Goodwin-Gill
The latest IJRL special issue pays tribute to the founding editor, Professor Guy S Goodwin-Gill, with a collection of 10 articles, each drawing on a different aspect of his work in international refugee law. The issue will be free to read until 31 December 2017
Click here to browse the table of contents.
The Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement
Submit your work on the 20th anniversary of the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement to the IJRL to mark its 20th anniversary. Learn more about submitting your work and possible areas to focus on. Submission deadline 31 July, 2017.
Learn more about the call for papers and how to submitAccess freely available papers
In recognition of 25 years
The founding editor, Guy S. Goodwin-Gill, and the journal's immediate past editor Professor Geoff Gilbert, worked together to nominate 10 papers from the archive for a free Editors' Choice Collection.
If you're not sure where to start, open Guy S. Goodwin-Gill's editorial, The Dynamic of International Refugee Law, which reflects on the first 25 years of the International Journal of Refugee Law.
Free access papers
In addition to the 25th Anniversary Collection, the following articles are also free to read online:
States’ Obligations under Human Rights Law towards Victims of Trafficking in Human Beings: Positive Developments in Positive Obligations by Ryszard Piotrowicz
Strengthening Accountability in UNHCR by Volker Turk and Elizabeth Eyster
Towards a ‘Soft Law’ Framework for the Protection of Vulnerable Irregular Migrants by Alexander Betts
IJRL on the OUPblog
Fences, fortresses, and fortifications: What (not) to do about contemporary refugee flows?
Andreas Schloenhardt discusses the measures and policies being adopted around the world to stop migrants from entering their borders, and why we need more meaningful mechanisms.
Why hasn’t the rise of new media transformed refugee status determination?
Read this contribution from Rosemary Byrne on the under-realization of emergent technologies on refugee status determination.
Is asylum a principle of the liberal democratic state?
“International law is not only about written rules, but also about unwritten principles.”
Read María-Teresa Gil-Bazo’s contribution to the OUPblog here.
Why Edward Snowden never had a right to asylum
Extradition and deportation are two different processes, and the media often fail to make the distinction. Geoff Gilbert looks at the case of Edward Snowden in particular in this contribution.


