A joint initiative between the University of Bergen
and CMI – Chr. Michelsen Institute
Hallvard Sandven calls upon political theorists to reconsider the normative demands of self-determination.
Photo: Jonathan McIntosh/flickr Self-determination is generally seen as the primary value supporting each state’s privilege to set its own immigration policy.
In this seminar, Hallvard Sandven questions whether the ideal of self-determination can bear the justificatory weight that is placed upon it in normative debates on migration. He argues that to rely on self-determination to justify unilateralism as a regulatory norm for global migration ignores central aspects of the politics of border control.
In practice, the norm of unilateralism enables both the externalisation of border control, and the de facto imposition of obligations for vulnerable migrants – two interrelated practices that directly conflict with the requirements of self-determination. These trends that have long been observed by empirical scholars call upon political theorists to reconsider the normative demands of self-determination.
Antonio De Lauri will be discussant following Sandven’s presentation.
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Hallvard Sandven is postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Political Science at the University of Oslo. He works in political theory and his research interests include migration and border control, theories of the state, and theories of institutional legitimacy.
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Antono De Lauri is Research Director for the Democracy & Governance and the Climate & Natural Resources research groups.
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Hallvard Sandven is postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Political Science at the University of Oslo. He works in political theory and his research interests include migration and border control, theories of the state, and theories of institutional legitimacy.
Before he joined the University of Oslo, he was a postdoctoral fellow in the research group “The International Rule of Law – Rise or Decline?” at Freie Universität Berlin and received his doctorate from the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Oxford.
Antono De Lauri is Research Director for the Democracy & Governance and the Climate & Natural Resources research groups.
De Lauri is an anthropologist with interest in legal and political anthropology, war, and humanitarianism. He holds a PhD in “Human Sciences: Anthropology of the Contemporary” (2010) from the University of Milan-Bicocca.
Bergen Global is a joint initiative between the University of Bergen and Chr. Michelsen Institute that addresses global challenges.
