Refugees, membership, and state system legitimacy
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12866694 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Richard Buxton (0000-0002-4518-5307, University of Cambridge), Jamie Draper (0000-0003-0177-3382, University of Oxford, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 15 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 113-130 |
| Publication date | 2022-10-02 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Ethics & Global Politics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1654-6369 • E-ISSN: 1654-4951 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/16544951.2022.2151286 |
| OpenAlex | W4310297559 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 26 |
In the literature on refugeehood in political theory, there has been a recent turn towards what have been called “state system legitimacy” views. These views derive an account of states’ obligations to refugees from a broader picture of the conditions for international legitimacy. This paper seeks to develop the state system legitimacy view of refugeehood by subjecting the most developed version of it—the account developed by David Owen—to critical scrutiny. We diagnose an ambiguity in Owen’s theory of refugeehood, in the concept of political membership, and unpack the implications of this ambiguity for state system legitimacy views. First, we reconstruct the key aspects of Owen’s account of refugeehood and show how it represents an advance over competing theories. Then we discuss the methodological underpinnings of Owen’s account, showing the constraints and opportunities faced by state system legitimacy views. Next, we raise some problems for the conceptual distinctions that Owen develops between different types of refugee protection: asylum, sanctuary, and refuge. The underlying feature that leads to these problems is an ambiguity in the concept of political membership, which is at the core of Owen’s view of refugeehood. Finally, we distinguish two interpretations of political membership in the institution of refugeehood and chart out some possible ways forward for state system legitimacy views. The critique developed here is a sympathetic one, aimed at the further development of state system legitimacy views
Ambiguity · Economics · Epistemology · Institution · Law and economics · Legitimacy · Political science · Politics · Positive economics · Refugee · Scrutiny · Sociology · State (computer science · Computer Science · Law · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · Political Philosophy and Ethics · Political Theology and Sovereignty
Citizenship and Nationhood in France and Germany
Survival Migration
VII — Genealogy, Epistemology and Worldmaking
Strangers in Our Midst
Philosophical Foundations for Complementary Protection
Are Refugees Special?
The Law of Refugee Status
Rethinking Asylum
Justice for People on the Move
Immigration and state system legitimacy
The duty to naturalise refugees
How Practices Matter
Refugee Rights
Reconceiving Refugee Law as Human Rights Protection
What's Political about Political Refugeehood? A Normative Reappraisal
Refugees
Philosophical investigations
The origins of totalitarianism
Justice and Internal Displacement
Refugees and justice between states
Resisting Reality
Do states have the right to exclude immigrants
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 3 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2026 (2) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |