Edem Droits & Migrations

EDEM is a research team created in 2011 in the framework of a research project co-financed by the European Refugee Fund and UCLouvain. Law as the main subject of study: We embrace a pluralistic conception of the law. Without abandoning a classic and rigorous approach to legal matters, we are interested in the complex dynamics of law, including the interactions between different levels of law – sub-national, national, regional and international – various legal sources (i.e. soft law) as well as mechanisms other than jurisdictional ones. This allows us to question the EU and international legal framework, with regards to migratory justice, by pointing out the intrinsic limits of the law and its main contradictions. Migration in its complexity: We embrace a plural understanding of migration beyond the artificial dichotomies between international and internal, forced and voluntary migration. We instead focus on mobility in a more general and positive way. Our perspectives have expanded at different levels, particularly regarding time and space. Migration trajectories encompass, first, the determinants of human mobility, second, how they operate en route, and finally, their legal treatment in the host countries A strong and wide international network: These diverse and cross-border research interests made it possible to develop partnerships in North, West and Central Africa and in North America, whether in academia or beyond. Our relations with team members who are not or no longer based in Belgium are fruitful and regular. These collective projects and the doctoral and post-doctoral research conducted within EDEM connect the team to other networks in Europe. Increasing interdisciplinarity: While our approach is, above all, legal, most of the research within the EDEM mobilizes other disciplines, often with empirical and field approaches. I have built an expertise in developing interdisciplinary methods for lawyers (in humanities as well as exact sciences).