030659 KU Migration and Morality: Debates in Legal Philosophy (2026W)

Do people have a right to immigrate and to emigrate? If so, what does this right entitle them to? Are states, conversely, obliged to open their borders to migrants, or do they have a "right to exclude"? What role do the reasons that lead people to emigrate play here? These questions concern us from both a legal and an ethical perspective. Under current law, states are in principle entitled to regulate access to their territory; traditionally, this power is grounded in their territorial sovereignty. Whether and to what extent it can also be justified on normative grounds is the subject of ongoing controversy. The exclusion of migrants calls for justification in a twofold sense: territorially, that is, with regard to entry into the state's territory, and personally, with regard to membership in the political community. Against this background, transnational migration broadens the classical perspective of political philosophy, which long centred on the relationship between the state and its citizens. Questions of legitimation, participation, belonging and responsibility then arise on new terms.

The aim of the course is to examine the moral arguments that are advanced to justify norms of migration law and that in part reach beyond them. We discuss the main features of current law and, on that basis, turn to the central philosophical positions on territorial exclusion, political (non-)participation, and distinctions based on the reasons for migration. The range of readings is deliberately broad: it extends from the demand for open borders to the defence of states' rights to exclude, and brings together approaches drawn from, among others, egalitarianism, utilitarianism, communitarianism, libertarianism, liberal nationalism, and freedom of association.

A sustained debate in (legal) philosophy on migration has developed since the 1980s, primarily in the English-speaking world; the relevant texts are increasingly being translated into German. Where possible, we read these translations. No specialised legal knowledge (for instance of migration law or international law) or prior knowledge of philosophy is required; a general grounding in law and an interest in philosophical questions are, however, assumed.

Upon completing the course, students should be able to:
- explain the central positions and lines of argument in the legal-philosophical debate on migration and assign them to different theories or groups of theories;
- reconstruct the argumentation of selected texts in a structured way and situate it within the wider debate;
- systematically analyse and critically assess arguments for and against a state "right to exclude" (i.e. immigration restrictions);
- develop and defend independently reasoned positions and reflect on them in light of alternative objections.