Book Review: Palestinian Refugees in International Law (2nd Edition) by Francesca P. Albanese and Lex Takkenberg; Redefining a Legal Paradigm for Palestinian Refugees

Francesca P. Albanese and Lex Takkenberg’s Palestinian Refugees in International Law,the substantially expanded second edition of which was published in 2020 by OxfordUniversity Press, is an exhaustive and meticulous work that can be considered the seminallegal text on the status of Palestinian refugees. This volume, which is fundamentallya new work built upon the foundation of the 1998 first edition, adopts a holistic andmultidisciplinary approach to examine the historical, legal, and political dimensions ofone of the world’s most protracted refugee crises. The authors, both possessing extensiveexperience with the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the NearEast (UNRWA), present a profound analysis of the distinctive legal regime governingthis refugee population, arguing that any just and durable solution to their predicamentmust be firmly rooted in the principles of international law.