TY - JOUR

T1 - Network Analysis and Comparative Migration Law

T2 - Examples from the European Court of Human Rights

AU - Byrne, William Hamilton

AU - Olsen, Henrik Palmer

AU - Gammeltoft-Hansen, Thomas

PY - 2023

Y1 - 2023

N2 - International migration law (IML) is famously fragmented, which provides fertile ground for comparative inquiry. However, this task is inhibited the heterodox nature of IML as it draws on a composite body of law that is expressed in different concepts, interpretations and languages. This paper presents network analysis as one useful methodology for navigating IML's normative architecture and empirically mapping case law and its interrelations. Part I introduces network analysis as a data driven method for representing the relationship between variables in a legal network. Part II exemplifies its empirical purchase in the European Court of Human Rights' migration case law. Part III suggests the further added value that arises for a comparative migration law by bringing into scope authoritative judicial practice across wider data sets. Part IV concludes reflexively by asking what unravelling the web of IML might reveal for a field always caught between universalist and relativist theoretical narratives.

AB - International migration law (IML) is famously fragmented, which provides fertile ground for comparative inquiry. However, this task is inhibited the heterodox nature of IML as it draws on a composite body of law that is expressed in different concepts, interpretations and languages. This paper presents network analysis as one useful methodology for navigating IML's normative architecture and empirically mapping case law and its interrelations. Part I introduces network analysis as a data driven method for representing the relationship between variables in a legal network. Part II exemplifies its empirical purchase in the European Court of Human Rights' migration case law. Part III suggests the further added value that arises for a comparative migration law by bringing into scope authoritative judicial practice across wider data sets. Part IV concludes reflexively by asking what unravelling the web of IML might reveal for a field always caught between universalist and relativist theoretical narratives.

U2 - 10.1504/IJMBS.2023.128598

DO - 10.1504/IJMBS.2023.128598

M3 - Journal article

VL - 7

SP - 197

EP - 213

JO - International Journal of Migration and Border Studies

JF - International Journal of Migration and Border Studies

SN - 1755-2427

IS - 2

ER -