Democratic Legitimacy and the Ethics of Asylum

How should states reconcile the competing demands of democratic legitimacy within their borders and the ethical obligation to admit outsiders in need of their protection? This seminar will examine how states ought to act when their duty towards needy outsiders is challenged by citizens within their borders whose political judgment they are putatively required to respect. 

The panellists for this session are David Miller, Mollie Gerver and Christopher Bertram. The session will be chaired by Matthew Gibney. 

David Miller is a professor of political theory, and an official fellow of Nuffield College, University of Oxford. He is the author of many books, including, most recently, Strangers in Our Midst: The Political Philosophy of Immigration (Harvard University Press)

Mollie Gerver is an Assistant Professor in International Politics at Newcastle University, and from August 2018 she will be an Assistant Professor of Political Theory at the University of Essex. Her research focuses on when coercive and non-coercive forms of immigration control are justified. Her research has been published in prominent academic journals like Res Publica, Political Studies and the British Journal of Political Science. 

Christopher Bertram is Professor of Social and Political Philosophy at the Department of Philosophy, University of Bristol. His main research interests are in modern social contract theory, in theories of justice (especially global distributive justice, including issues concerning territory and migration) and in public justification. He is the author of 'Do States Have the Right to Exclude Immigrants?' (Polity Press, 2018) and 'Rousseau and the Social Contract' (Routledge, 2003)

Matthew J Gibney is Professor of Politics and Forced Migration at the University of Oxford, Director of the Refugee Studies Centre, and Official Fellow of Linacre College, Oxford. He specialises in the political and ethical issues raised by refugees, citizenship, and migration control. Matthew is the author of many scholarly articles, chapters and books, including The Ethics and Politics of Asylum (2004), Globalizing Rights (2003), which has been translated into Italian and Spanish, The Social, Historical and Political Contours of Deportation (2013) (edited with Bridget Anderson and Emanuela Paoletti) and (with Randall Hansen) Immigration and Asylum (2005), a three-volume encyclopedia.

The seminar will take place from 5 pm to 6.30 pm followed by a drinks reception. 

Sponsored by the Linacre College Academic Activities Fund. Step-free access is not available to the Tanner Lecture Room. 

Facebook page for the event is available here