CYIL vol. 9 (2018)

CYIL 9 ȍ2018Ȏ

MIGRATION AND REFUGEE LAW AT THE LAW FACULTY

4. …to try to be an academic. The Faculty supports students’ research by creating a competition based on research of legal issues every year. There are sections in which students can present their research papers on e.g. European Law, International Law, Commercial Law, Criminal Law, and Migration Law. Some of the papers are very good and teachers can continue their cooperation with students on the respective topics for the purposes of theses or longer research papers. There is also a research group under the Migration Programme at the Faculty, with its basis in the research project of the programme coordinator. Instead of a Conclusion Migration might, and probably will, be one of the important issues in the future. It is essential that graduates of the Law Faculty are familiar with the relevant legislation and understand the complexity of the issue of migration. The faculty tries to respond to this need, and enable all students who would like to learn more the opportunity do so. The support of the UNHCR helps greatly as well as the cooperation with the Interior Ministry, the Army of the Czech Republic, non-governmental organizations, and many others. Students can not only gain knowledge but also practical experience by participating in the Faculty’s Migration Programme. Some of them start with simulation programmes and become interested in the theory later. Some of them take a course on refugee or migration law first and then continue with practice. The interconnection of more teaching methods allows students with different learning types to find their own way to start with the issue. The variety of the courses guarantee the required result: an overview of the issue. Besides understanding the facts students also learn what it feels like to be a soldier, a practising lawyer, a judge, a state official, and a refugee. The law is the same for all of them. But their view and understanding of it differs. A judge interprets law impartially. A state official may use an interpretation of law which mirrors the state’s interest. A refugee often does not understand the law at all. And last but not least, students find out one important aspect which is relevant in today’s Czech reality. They find out that being a refugee might often mean that you leave all your loved ones behind. To wait for their decision whether they want to follow you to a country they might have never been to, to a country where a weird language is spoken, and a country they would never choose to move to or live in. They also find out that to be a migrant often means that a person has more than one place they call home, but is never really at home in any of them.

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