Article: Network analysis and comparative migration law: examples from the European Court of Human Rights Journal: International Journal of Migration and Border Studies (IJMBS) 2023 Vol.7 No.2 pp.197 - 213 Abstract: International migration law (IML) is famously fragmented, which provides fertile ground for comparative inquiry. However, this task is inhibited the heterodox nature of IML as it draws on a composite body of law that is expressed in different concepts, interpretations and languages. This paper presents network analysis as one useful methodology for navigating IML's normative architecture and empirically mapping case law and its interrelations. Part I introduces network analysis as a data driven method for representing the relationship between variables in a legal network. Part II exemplifies its empirical purchase in the European Court of Human Rights' migration case law. Part III suggests the further added value that arises for a comparative migration law by bringing into scope authoritative judicial practice across wider data sets. Part IV concludes reflexively by asking what unravelling the web of IML might reveal for a field always caught between universalist and relativist theoretical narratives. Inderscience Publishers - linking academia, business and industry through research

Title: Network analysis and comparative migration law: examples from the European Court of Human Rights

Authors: William Hamilton Byrne; Thomas Gammeltoft-Hansen; Henrik Palmer Olsen

Addresses: Faculty of Law, The University of Copenhagen, Karen Blixens Pl. 16, 2300 København, Denmark ' Faculty of Law, The University of Copenhagen, Karen Blixens Pl. 16, 2300 København, Denmark ' Faculty of Law, The University of Copenhagen, Karen Blixens Pl. 16, 2300 København, Denmark

Abstract: International migration law (IML) is famously fragmented, which provides fertile ground for comparative inquiry. However, this task is inhibited the heterodox nature of IML as it draws on a composite body of law that is expressed in different concepts, interpretations and languages. This paper presents network analysis as one useful methodology for navigating IML's normative architecture and empirically mapping case law and its interrelations. Part I introduces network analysis as a data driven method for representing the relationship between variables in a legal network. Part II exemplifies its empirical purchase in the European Court of Human Rights' migration case law. Part III suggests the further added value that arises for a comparative migration law by bringing into scope authoritative judicial practice across wider data sets. Part IV concludes reflexively by asking what unravelling the web of IML might reveal for a field always caught between universalist and relativist theoretical narratives.

Keywords: migration; non-refoulement; European court of human rights; international migration law; network analysis.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMBS.2023.128598

International Journal of Migration and Border Studies, 2023 Vol.7 No.2, pp.197 - 213

Received: 14 Oct 2021
Accepted: 02 Mar 2022
Published online: 27 Jan 2023 *

Title: Network analysis and comparative migration law: examples from the European Court of Human Rights

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