Prof Cathryn Costello

Contact Cathryn: cathryncostello@matrixlaw.co.uk | +44 (0)20 7404 3447

Contact Cathryn's Practice Team (Team X): TeamX@matrixlaw.co.uk

Cathryn is a leading scholar of international refugee and migration law, with expertise in public, public international and EU law. She also explores the relationship between migration and labour law in her academic and practical work.  She is currently Full Professor of Global Refugee and Migration Law at the Sutherland School of Law, University College Dublin.  She was called to the Irish Bar in 2001, and since then has pursued a mainly academic career in Dublin, Oxford and Berlin.

Her previous roles include Professor of Fundamental Rights and Co-Director of the Centre for Fundamental Rights at the Hertie School (2020 – 2023) and Andrew W Mellon Professor of International Refugee and Migration Law at the Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford (2013-2023). She was the Principal Investigator of RefMig, a five-year ERC-funded research project exploring refugee mobility, recognition and rights (2018-2023), and now runs the Volkswagen Foundation funded AFAR (Algorithmic Fairness for Asylum Seekers and Refugees) project, exploring the role of automated decision-making in the governance of migration and asylum (2021-2025). She has also undertaken research and advisory work for UNHCR, the Council of Europe and the European Parliament, and provided expert input in litigation on refugee protection globally.

She is the author of The Human Rights of Migrants and Refugees in European Law (OUP 2015), and is currently completing a monograph examining refugee recognition practices globally, as well as a short critical introduction to international refugee law.  She is the co-editor of the Oxford Handbook of International Refugee Law (OUP 2021) and Migrants at Work: Immigration and Vulnerability in Labour Law (co-editor Mark Freedland) (OUP 2014), a ground-breaking work on the impact of immigration law and status in labour relations. Her most recent collaborative volume was IOM Unbound: Obligations and Accountability of the International Organisation for Migration in an Era of Expansion (co-editors Megan Bradley & Angela Sherwood) (Cambridge University Press, June 2022), examining legal and political accountability of this IO across its diverse areas of activity.

She is an experienced and effective public speaker and moderator, and frequently contributes to policy processes and public debates on asylum and migration.

Background

Born and raised in Ireland, Cathryn studied law at University College Cork; the College of Europe, Bruges; and the University of Oxford. She qualified at the Irish Bar, whilst lecturing in EU law at Trinity College Dublin and serving as Director of the Irish Centre for European Law.  In 2003, she moved to Oxford, where wrote her doctorate (DPhil) on European asylum and migration law, while holding the Francis Reynolds Fellowship in EU and Public law at Worcester College and teaching full-time. After a decade in that role, she took up the inaugural Andrew Mellon Professorship in refugee law at the Refugee Studies Centre, Oxford, which she held from 2013-2023. She spent three years on special leave in Berlin (2020-2023), co-directing the Centre for Fundamental Rights with Professor Başak Çalı at the Hertie School, Berlin. In 2023, she returned to take up a newly created post at University College Dublin.

Speeches & Invitations

Cathryn is frequently invited to give academic keynotes and named lectures, as well as to address judges, legal practitioners, policy-makers and give public talks.  She recently gave a public talk at the Nobel Week Dialogue on Future of Migration (Gothenburg), a Thomas Franck Lecture (Berlin) and a Kapucinski Lecture https://kapuscinskilectures.eu/ (Valencia). She has recently spoken to a very wide range of organisations, including the International Association of Refugee and Migration Law Judges, international organisations and many non-governmental organisations.

Professional Involvements

Society of Legal Scholars; European Society of International Law; Refugee Law Initiative (London).

Media Appearances (Selected)

8 November 2023: Deutschlandfunkkultur ‚Asyl in Industrieländern: Anreize und Limits für Geflüchtete‘ 8 November 2023, 18:30 Uhr

https://www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/asyl-in-industrielaendern-anreize-und-limits-dlf-kultur-c86e6698-100.html

12 October 2023: BBC world service, The Inquiry,  ‘Can Europe Solve its migrant crisis?’  12 October 2023

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct4wdj

21 December 2022: https://www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/news/cathryn-costello-argues-against-the-high-court-ruling-on-the-uk-governments-rwanda-plan

24 May 2016: BBC World Service, The Inquiry: ‘Would a New International Convention Help Refugees?’, interview, https://www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/news/time-to-learn-lessons-from-the-past-in-international-refugee-protection

18 March 2016: BBC Radio 4, Today programme, interview on the proposed EU-Turkey deal https://www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/news/for-the-proposed-eu-turkey-deal-to-be-legal-2018would-require-very-significant-legal-changes-both-in-turkey-and-in-greece2019-cathryn-costello

9 March 2016: BBC2, Newsnight, interview regarding legality of the EU-Turkey deal https://www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/news/cathryn-costello-questions-the-legality-of-the-eu-turkey-plan-to-address-eu-refugee-crisis

29 February 2016: BBC News Channel, interview regarding the so-called ‘Jungle’ camp at Calais https://www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/news/we-have-illegalised-refugees-and-created-a-bonanza-for-smugglers-cathryn-costello

Publications (Selected)

Books (author)

• The Human Rights of Migrants and Refugees in European Law (Oxford University Press, 2016).
• Joint Winner of the Odysseus Prize (2016)

Books (as editor and co-editor)

• IOM Unbound: Obligations and Accountability of the International Organisation for Migration in an Era of Expansion (co-editors Megan Bradley & Angela Sherwood) (Cambridge University Press, June 2022), c. 300 pages.
•  Oxford Handbook of International Refugee Law (co-editors Michelle Foster & Jane McAdam) (Oxford University Press, 2021), 1344 pages.
• See ‘Opening’ event with Professor Hilary Charlesworth. https://www.kaldorcentre.unsw.edu.au/event/join-us-launch-oxford-handbook-international-refugee-law
• Edward Elgar Research Handbook on EU Labour Law (co-editors Alan Bogg & ACL Davies) (Edward Elgar, 2016).
• Migrants at Work: Immigration and Vulnerability in Labour Law (co-editor Mark Freedland) (Oxford University Press, 2014).
• The Autonomy of Labour Law (co-editors Alan Bogg, ACL Davies, & Jeremias Prassl) (Hart Publishing, 2014).
• Equality in Diversity: The New EC Equality Directives (co-editor Eilis Barry) (ICEL / Equality Authority Dublin, 2003), 487 pages.
• Fundamental Social Rights: Current Legal Protection and the Challenge of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights (ICEL, 2001).

Recent Journal Articles

•  ‘“Systemic Violations” in EU Asylum Law:  Cover or Catalyst?’ (co-author Lilian Tsourdi) (2023) 24(6) German Law Journal  982.
•  ‘Who is Recognised as a Refugee? Insights from Diverse Disciplines’ (2023) 7(1) Z’Flucht. Zeitschrift für Flucht-und Flüchtlingsforschung 120.
•  ‘(Some) refugees welcome: When is differentiating between refugees unlawful discrimination?’ (co-author Michelle Foster) (2022) 22(3) International Journal of Discrimination & Law 244.
• ‘Introduction to the Symposium on Undoing Discriminatory Borders’ (co-author Catherine Briddick) (2021) 115 AJIL Unbound 328.
• ‘Race Discrimination Effaced at the International Court of Justice’ (co-author Michelle Foster) (2021) 115 AJIL Unbound 339.
• ‘Border Justice: Migration and Accountability for Human Rights Violations’ (co-author Itamar Mann) (2020) 21(3) German Law Journal 311.
• ‘Hard Protection through Soft Courts? Non-refoulement before the United Nations Treaty Bodies’ (co-authors Başak Çalı & Stewart Cunningham) (2020) 21(3) German Law Journal 355.
• ‘Overcoming Refugee Containment and Crisis’ (2020) 21(1) German Law Journal 17.
• ‘Refugees and (Other) Migrants: Will the Global Compacts Ensure Safe Flight and Onward Mobility for Refugees?’ (2018) 30(4) International Journal of Refugee Law 643.
• ‘Safe Country? Says Who?’ (2016) 28(4) International Journal of Refugee Law 601.
• ‘Non-refoulement as Custom and Jus Cogens? Putting the Prohibition to the Test’ (co-author Michelle Foster) in Maarten den Heijer and Harmen van der Wilt (eds), Netherlands Yearbook of International Law 2015: Jus Cogens: Quo Vadis? (TMC Asser Press 2016) .
• The piece has been cited positively by the Special Rapporteur of the International Law Commission on jus cogens / peremptory norms, Dire Tladi, in both his Second (16 March 2017) and Fourth Reports to the ILC (21 January 2019).   He states that ‘Costello and Foster make an excellent in-depth argument, looking at both arguments for and against, and come to the conclusion that the principle of non-refoulement is a norm of jus cogens.’ (para 133, Fourth Report).
• ‘EU Law and the Detainability of Asylum-Seekers’ (co-author Minos Mouzourakis) (2016) 35(1) Refugee Survey Quarterly 47.
• ‘Immigration Detention:  The Grounds Beneath our Feet’ (2015) 68(1) Current Legal Problems 143.
• ‘The Ruling of the Court of Justice in NS/ME on the Fundamental Rights of Asylum Seekers under the Dublin Regulation: Finally, an End to Blind Trust Across the EU?’ (2012) Asiel- en Migrantenrecht 83.
• ‘Courting Access to Asylum in Europe: Recent Supranational Jurisprudence Explored’ (2012) 12(2) Human Rights Law Review 287.
• ‘Human Rights & the Elusive Universal Subject: Immigration Detention under International Human Rights and EU Law’ (2012) 19(1) Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies 257.
• (reprinted in Vincent Chetail (ed), International Law and Migration (Edward Elgar 2016).  The collection brings together ‘seminal and classic articles that have influenced the development of research in a particular area of study.’)
• ‘Metock: Free Movement and “Normal Family Life” in the Union’ (2009) 46(2) Common Market Law Review 587.
• ‘The Case Law of the Court of Justice in the Field of Sex Equality Since 2000’ (co-author Gareth Davies) (2006) 43(6) Common Market Law Review 1567.
• ‘The Bosphorus Ruling of the European Court of Human Rights: Fundamental Rights and Blurred Boundaries in Europe’ (2006) 6(1) Human Rights Law Review 87.
• ‘Ireland’s Nice Referenda’ (2005) 1(3) European Constitutional Law Review 357.
• ‘The Asylum Procedures Directive and the Proliferation of Safe Country Practices:  Deterrence, Deflection and the Dismantling of International Protection’ (2005) 7(1) European Journal of Migration and Law 35.
•  ‘Enforcing EC Motor Insurance Directives: Navigating the Maze’ (co-author Sara Drake) (2003) 9 European Public Law 366.
• ‘The Preliminary Reference Procedure and the 2000 Intergovernmental Conference’ (1999) 21 Dublin University Law Journal 40.
• ‘Market Access All Areas – The Treatment of Non-discriminatory Barriers to the Free Movement of Workers’, (2000) 27(3 Legal Issues of Economic Integration 267.

Chapters in Edited Volumes

•  ‘IOM’s Immigration Detention Practices and Policies: Human Rights, Positive Obligations and Humanitarian Duties’ (co-author Angela Sherwood & Isabelle Lemay) in Megan Bradley, Cathryn Costello & Angela Sherwood (eds), IOM Unbound (Cambridge University Press, 2023).
•  ‘Effective Judicial Protection of Migrants and Refugees? The role of Europe’s supranational courts in protecting and generating rights’ (co-author Minos Mouzourakis) in Evangelia (Lilian) Tsourdi & Philippe De Bruycker (eds), Research Handbook in EU Migration and Asylum Law (Elgar 2022).
• ‘The Right to Work’ (co-author Colm O’Cinnéide) in Cathryn Costello, Michelle Foster & Jane McAdam (eds), Oxford Handbook of International Refugee Law (Oxford University Press, 2021).
• ‘Non-Penalization and Non-Criminalization’ (co-author Yulia Ioffe) in Cathryn Costello, Michelle Foster & Jane McAdam (eds), Oxford Handbook of International Refugee Law (Oxford University Press, 2021).
• Note:  This chapter has been cited by the UN Special Rapporteur on Trafficking, drawing heavily on our argument for a general principle of non-penalisation for refugees and other vulnerable migrants.  (See Implementation of the non-punishment principle: Report of the Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children to the UN Human Rights Council (17 May 2021)).
• ‘The Evolution of EU Law on Refugees and Asylum’ (co-author Lilian Tsourdi) in Paul Craig & Gráinne de Búrca (eds), The Evolution of EU Law (3^rd edition, Oxford University Press, 2021).
• ‘Victim or Perpetrator? The Criminalization of Migration and the Idea of ‘Harm’ in the Labour Market Context’ in Alan Bogg, Jennifer Collins, Mark Freedland & Jonathan Herring (eds), Criminality at Work (Oxford University Press, 2020).
• ‘On Refugeehood and Citizenship’ in Ayelet Shachar, Rainer Bauboeck, Irene Bloemraad & Maarten Vink (eds), Oxford Handbook of Citizenship (Oxford University Press, 2017).
• ‘EU Migration and Asylum Law:  A Labour Law Perspective’ in Alan Bogg, Cathryn Costello & ACL Davies (eds), Research Handbook on EU Labour Law (Edward Elgar, 2016).
•  ‘The Common European Asylum System – Where did it all go wrong?’ (co-author Minos Mouzourakis) in Maria Fletcher, Ester Herlin Karnell & Claudio Matera (eds), The European Union as an Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (Routledge 2016).
• ‘Seasonal Workers and Intra-Corporate Transferees in EU Law: Capital’s Handmaidens?’ (co-author Mark Freedland) in Joanna Howe & Rosemary Owens (eds), Temporary Labour Migration in the Global Era: The Regulatory Challenges (Hart Publishing, 2016).
• ‘Strategic Litigation to Vindicate the Rights of Refugees and Migrants: Pyrrhic Perils and Painstaking Progress’ in Ivana Bacik & Mary Rogan (eds), Legal Cases that Changed Ireland (Clarus Press, 2016).
• ‘The Search for the Outer Edges of Non-refoulement in Europe: Exceptionality and Flagrant Breaches’ in Bruce Burson & David James Cantor (eds), Human Rights and the Refugee Definition: Comparative Legal Practice and Theory (Brill Nijhoff, 2016).
•  ‘The Recast Asylum Procedures Directive 2013/32/EU: Caught between the Stereotypes of the Abusive Asylum-Seeker and the Vulnerable Refugee’ (co-author Emily Hancox) in Vincent Chetail, Philippe De Bruycker & Francesco Maiani (eds), Reforming the Common European Asylum System: The New European Refugee Law (Martinus Nijhoff, 2016).
•  ‘Migrants at Work and the Division of Labour Law’ (co-author Mark Freedland) in Cathryn Costello & Mark Freedland (eds), Migrants at Work:  Immigration and Vulnerability in Labour Law (Oxford University Press, 2014).
•  ‘Migrants and Forced Labour: A Labour Law Response’ in Alan Bogg, Cathryn Costello, ACL Davies & Jeremias Adams-Prassl (eds), The Autonomy of Labour Law (Hart Publishing, 2015).
•  ‘Child Citizens and De Facto Deportation: Tender Years, Fragile Ties and Security of Residence’ in Kieran Bradley, Noel Travers & Anthony Whelan (eds), Of Courts and Constitutions: Liber Amicorum in Honour of Nial Fennelly (Hart Publishing, 2014).
•  ‘The Extraterritorial Application of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights’ (co-authored with Violeta Moreno-Lax) in Steve Peers, Tamara Hervey, Jeff Kenner & Angela Ward (eds), The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights: A Commentary (Hart Publishing, 2014).
•  ‘Article 33: Family & Professional Life’ in Steve Peers, Tamara Hervey, Jeff Kenner & Angela Ward (eds), The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights: A Commentary (Hart Publishing, 2014).
•  ‘Citizenship of the Union: Above Abuse?’ in Rita de la Feria & Stefan Vogenauer (eds), Prohibition of Abuse of Law: A New General Principle of EU Law (Hart Publishing, 2011).

Selected Shorter Publications & Blog Posts

• ‘Pushing Back: How to Limit Overcriminalisation of Assistance to Those in Need of Protection’ (co-author Stefano Zirulia) VerfBlog, 2024/2/29, https://verfassungsblog.de/pushing-back/, DOI: 10.59704/6ac37823fdfc866e.
• ‘Supreme Judgecraft: Non-Refoulement and the end of the UK-Rwanda ‘deal’?’ (co-author Catherine Briddick) (Verfassungsblog, 20 November 2023), available at https://verfassungsblog.de/supreme-judgecraft/
• ‘Human rights violations to deflect refugees’ (co-author Minos Mouzourakis) (Verfassungsblog, 25 June 2023), available at https://verfassungsblog.de/human-rights-violations-to-deflect-refugees/.
• ‘Coping Strategies: Domestic and International Courts in Times of Backlash’ (co-author Başak Çalı,) (Verfassungsblog, 26 September 2022), available at https://verfassungsblog.de/coping-strategies-domestic-and-international-courts-in-times-of-backlash/.
• ‘Refugee Containment and the Costs of Creating False Dilemmas. A Response to Aleinikoff and Owen (2022)’ (co-author Ashwini Vasanthakumar) Commentary for ‘The Ethics of Migration Policy Dilemmas’ project, Migration Policy Centre (MPC), European University (2022), available at
• https://migrationpolicycentre.eu/docs/dilemmas/2nd_dilemma_2nd_response.pdf
• ‘The “New Plan for Immigration” and the UK’s Breach of its Legal Duty of Non-Penalisation’ (co-author Emilie McDonnell) (RLI Blog on Refugee Law and Forced Migration, 28 July 2021), available at 
• https://rli.blogs.sas.ac.uk/2021/07/28/the-new-plan-for-immigration-and-the-uks-breach-of-its-legal-duty-of-non-penalisation/.
• ‘Recognising refugees: understanding the real routes to recognition’ (co-authors Caroline Nalule & Derya Ozkul) (Forced Migration Review, November 2020), available at https://www.fmreview.org/sites/default/files/FMRdownloads/en/recognising-refugees/costello-nalule-ozkul.pdf.
• ‘Fixing the Refugee Crisis: Holding the Commission Accountable’ (co-author Elspeth Guild) (Verfassungsblog, 16 September 2018) available at https://verfassungsblog.de/fixing-the-refugee-crisis-holding-the-commission-accountable.
• ‘Europe’s Refugee and Immigration Policies – Obligation, Discretion, Cooperation & Freeriding’ (A Response to Georg Menz) (2016) 4 Newsletter of the American Political Science Association Organized Section on Migration and Citizenship 59.
• ‘European Justice for Migrants and Refugees’, (Verfassungsblog, 14 June 2015) available at
• http://www.verfassungsblog.de/european-justice-for-migrants-and-refugees/.
• ‘“Tragedy” and Responsibility in the Mediterranean’ (co-author Mariagiulia Giuffre) (openDemocracy, 27 April 2015) available at
• https://www.opendemocracy.net/can-europe-make-it/mariagiulia-giuffré-cathryn-costello/crocodile-tears-tragedy-and-responsibility-i.
• ‘Reflections on an Anniversary: EU Citizenship at 20’ in Bridget Anderson & Michael Keith (eds), Migration: The COMPAS Anthology (COMPAS, 2014) available at https://www.compas.ox.ac.uk/2014/migration-the-compas-anthology/.
• ‘The UK, EU Citizenship and Free Movement of Persons’ (co-author Emily Hancox), Policy Primer, The Migration Observatory 2014, available at http://www.migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/sites/files/migobs/UK_EU_Citizenship%20_Free_Movement.pdf.
• ‘The UK, the Common European Asylum System and EU Immigration Law’ (co-author Emily Hancox), Policy Primer, The Migration Observatory 2014, available at https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/PolicyPrimer-UK_EU_Asylum_Law.pdf. 
• ‘Reflections on Reading Tarakhel’ (co-author Minos Mouzarakis) (2014) 5 Asiel & Migrantenrecht 404 available at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2548542.