CYIL vol. 9 (2018)

CYIL 9 ȍ2018Ȏ MIGRATION AND REFUGEE LAW AT THE LAW FACULTY MIGRATION AND REFUGEE LAW AT THE LAW FACULTY OF CHARLES UNIVERSITY Věra Honusková 1 Introduction Even though only few law students will become immigration lawyers or judges and will need detailed knowledge of migration and refugee law, all law students will need the knowledge of migration and refugee law in their future as members of society. Lawyers shape public debates either through their work, or in debates where their impact is indirect, but still strong, as they are seen as those who have the basis for understanding the issue. The Czech Republic seems to have been in a vortex of negative attitude towards refugees since 2015; lately, this attitude can also be seen in regard to migrants. The “Hungarian path” within the meaning of very restrictive migration politics based on nationalist tendencies is followed by politicians and also by public opinion. 2 No doubt that there is a need for having at least some basic knowledge of the legal background present in public debates. However, there is a tendency to perceive knowledge of this issue as consent with open borders in – that not so small part of – the Czech society, and students may be influenced by this view. Teachers of migration and refugee law thus face an important challenge. Their task is not only to teach the law in such a way that students derive the most benefit, but also to attract students who would not choose their courses based on an interest in the subject alone. This short text aims at sharing the experience of the Law Faculty of Charles University which is focused on giving students as much knowledge, practice, experience, and debates about ethical issues in the respective area as possible. We at the Law Faculty of Charles University have chosen different approaches to achieve the required impact. There is a pool of standard courses on migration and refugee law. But we have also decided that having a standard course is only a nice starting point for other teaching and learning activities which altogether, with the standard courses, constitute a compact and rich programme showing the issue from many perspectives. The programme – the Migration Module in the Faculty’s curricula – can be divided into four main parts which are described below. 1 JUDr. Věra Honusková, Ph.D. , member of the Department of International Law. She is in charge of the Migration Programme at the Law Faculty, Charles University. Contact: honuskov@prf.cuni.cz. The paper was created with the financial support of the project NAKI II DG18P02OVV064 “Právní, historické a společenskovědní aspekty nových a tradičních menšin v České republice” (Legal, historical and social aspects of new and traditional minorities in the Czech Republic). 2 For more information about the situation in Hungary see e.g. a Joint Opinion of The Council of Europe’s Commission for Democracy Through Law (the ‘Venice Commission’) and the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR) from 25 June 2018. Online at http://www.venice.coe. int/webforms/documents/?pdf=CDL-AD(2018)013-e [accessed 23 August 2018], or a Press release by the European Commission from 19 July 2018 in which it announced the referral of Hungary to the Court of Justice of the European Union for non-compliance of its asylum and return legislation with EU law. Online at http:// europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-18-4522_en.htm [accessed 3 August 2018]. It means in other words that the Commission launched an infringement procedure against Hungary.

413