TY - JOUR

T1 - Introduction to the Symposium on Covid-19, Global Mobility and International Law

AU - Gammeltoft-Hansen, Thomas

AU - Achiume, Tendayi

AU - Spijkerboer, Thomas

PY - 2020/11

Y1 - 2020/11

N2 - As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, international mobility all but ground to a halt by the second quarter of 2020.1 Airline traffic dropped more than 70 percent, and thousands of grounded airplanes filled up the runways. All over the world, travel restrictions and quarantine measures are still in place at the time of this writing, and cross- border mobility remains largely shut down for all but the most essential forms of travel. Although some countries partially relaxed travel restrictions over the summer,2 there can be no question that the pandemic has fundamen- tally reconfigured global mobility and migration, even if only temporarily. Amidst these shifts, this symposium documents and reflects critically on the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for mobility and migration across international borders, on pertinent governance structures, and on the field of global migration and mobility law more broadly. A key hypothesis motivating the symposium is that COVID-19 has both laid bare and exacer- bated the discriminatory and flawed nature of current international rules related to migration and global mobility. Hence, we have invited our contributors not only to reflect on the implications of current developments, but also to imagine alternatives and to consider the possibility that COVID-19 might represent a kind of “Stunde Null,” an at least temporary reset, for the terms of global mobility and migration law.

AB - As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, international mobility all but ground to a halt by the second quarter of 2020.1 Airline traffic dropped more than 70 percent, and thousands of grounded airplanes filled up the runways. All over the world, travel restrictions and quarantine measures are still in place at the time of this writing, and cross- border mobility remains largely shut down for all but the most essential forms of travel. Although some countries partially relaxed travel restrictions over the summer,2 there can be no question that the pandemic has fundamen- tally reconfigured global mobility and migration, even if only temporarily. Amidst these shifts, this symposium documents and reflects critically on the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for mobility and migration across international borders, on pertinent governance structures, and on the field of global migration and mobility law more broadly. A key hypothesis motivating the symposium is that COVID-19 has both laid bare and exacer- bated the discriminatory and flawed nature of current international rules related to migration and global mobility. Hence, we have invited our contributors not only to reflect on the implications of current developments, but also to imagine alternatives and to consider the possibility that COVID-19 might represent a kind of “Stunde Null,” an at least temporary reset, for the terms of global mobility and migration law.

U2 - 10.1017/aju.2020.68

DO - 10.1017/aju.2020.68

M3 - Journal article

VL - 114

SP - 311

EP - 316

JO - AJIL Unbound

JF - AJIL Unbound

SN - 2398-7723

IS - 2

ER -