International Protection: A Novel Approach to an Autonomous Legal Concept that protects Non-Nationals at Risk of Harm

The present doctoral thesis unveils the contemporary autonomous meaning of ‘international protection’ as an umbrella concept suited to cover all situations in which a state must grant a non-national the right to stay on its territory solely to avoid severe human rights harm. Premised on the necessity to distinguish between categories of nonnationals according to their entitlement to protection to preserve societal support for the latter and the inadequacy of common dichotomies (such as refugees versus migrants), the author provides an in-depth positivist analysis of the expanding reach of international protection through the evolution of refugee law, non-expulsion obligations in universal and regional human rights law and the diverse perceptions of this concept by key international actors and scholars. The consequent re-conceptualisation proposal aspires to offer researchers, legal practitioners and international organisations a novel approach capable of more coherently delineating the exact boundaries of states’ current protection obligations worldwide.