Hyper-Legalism and Obfuscation: How States Evade Their International Obligations Towards Refugees
Pages 479–516, https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcl/avaa019
This Article examines how wealthy democratic states evade and avoid their international obligations towards refugees. The focus is on two strategies. The first is hyper-legalism—an overly formalistic bad-faith approach to interpreting international law. The second is obfuscation, which involves secrecy about what actions the government is taking and deliberate silence as to the purported legal justifications.