Evaluating the Expansion of the Principle of Non-refoulement by the European Regional Courts

In his paper, Moritz discusses the influence of the non-refoulement related case law of the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the EU on the human rights situation of migrants. Over time, international organizations and especially the two European courts have come to expand the reach of this legal principle, which now protects more groups of persons while imposing lower burdens of proof. This paper tests the assumption, often implied in legal scholarship, that this expansion equates to an increased practical protection of the human rights of asylum seekers.