LAWGEN 117Q: The Anatomy of Asylum law: Who Gets It and Why?
General Education Requirements
Not currently certified for a requirement. Courses are typically considered for Ways certification a quarter in advance.
Course Description
This course will cover the basics of asylum law through an overview of domestic and international laws and conventions. It will critically examine the history of asylum laws, related regulations, and treaty provisions as well as the political contexts for legal developments to further an understanding of who gets asylum and why. Through an exploration of several key immigration decisions, students will learn about the different fear-based protections available to noncitizens who face persecution in their home countries. Students will examine the different iterations of U.S. government policies that have shifted the categories of who is eligible for asylum. The class will analyze how changes to current policy have disproportionately impacted different groups and further consider how asylum law may be linked to foreign policies and relationships that fall outside of the statutory guidelines. Finally, students will analyze how the U.S. government’s asylum laws and policies are racialized, with negative effects on certain races, ethnicities, and other demographics.
Meet the Instructor: Lisa Weissman-Ward
“I am the Associate Director of the Stanford Law School Immigrants’ Rights Clinic. I have been practicing immigration law for 17 years and have been teaching at the law school for 10 years. In my role as Associate Director, I co-teach the clinic’s seminars and workshops, including training on issues related to substantive immigration law, trial preparation, client-centered lawyering, as well as other topics. I supervise clinical law students in their representation of clients facing removal from the United States. I specialize in asylum and refugee law as well as in the intersection between criminal and immigration law, and routinely advise non-citizens and criminal defense counsel on matters relating to the immigration consequences of criminal arrests and convictions. I also specialize in complex litigation before the national immigration agencies and courts and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. I have represented individual clients in appeals to and motions before the Board of Immigration Appeals, various Circuit Courts of Appeals, and federal district courts across California.
“In addition to my role in the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic, I am also a Commissioner on the San Francisco Board of Education.”
