Interpreting Article 1 of the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees

The immediate goal of this note is to elucidate contemporary issues in the interpretation of the terms of Article 1 of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, taking into account recent academic and jurisprudential developments. It is hoped that its contents will be useful in a number of contexts, not least in the efforts currently underway in Europe to harmonise understanding of the refugee definition.