The Clinic: Migration

An initial report was written by clinic students in 2024-2025, describing the persistent legal vacuum for minors appealing decisions denying recognition of their minority and depriving them of rights guaranteed by international law. Based on this observation, the students are tasked with developing an educational tool (a comic strip) to inform young people about their rights and appeal procedures. They will also be conducting legal research and analysis specifically on the right to education and access to schooling.  In this capacity, they are working closely with the Diderot Humanitarian Shelter of the Salvation Army Foundation and the Right to School association.

• Partner: Fondation de l'Armée du Salut (FAS)
• Tutor: Louise-Anne Baudrier 

ASSFAM is an association that supports and assists foreign nationals. Regular drop-in sessions are held in Paris to guide and help individuals referred by the Paris City Hall. As part of the clinic project, students participate in drop-in sessions alongside a social worker, providing support with research and resources to help those they are assisting. Students are also responsible for writing fact sheets for social workers on specific issues encountered by ASSFAM.

• Partner: ASSFAM GROUPE SOS SOLIDARITES
• Tutor: Anne-Laure Lacoste 

Border externalization policies involve delegating, through various means, the prerogatives of "migration management" to third countries, with the aim of limiting the arrival of foreign nationals on European territory. These policies take diverse forms: informal bilateral arrangements between a Member State and a third country, formal agreements between the European Union and one or more third countries, deployment of Frontex agents, and so on. While not new, these policies have experienced unprecedented growth in recent years. 

The objective of this project is to map the externalization initiatives undertaken by France or the European Union, presented in a tool that can be updated and expanded in the future. It also aims to identify ways in which this information can be used for advocacy purposes: to pinpoint levers that can be mobilized and propose concrete applications, such as disseminating an advocacy brief on an externalization project or giving a presentation during a meeting with a decision-maker.

• Partner: CCFD-Terre Solidaire 
• Tutor: Adrien Cabantous

The association Avocats Sans Frontières (ASF) works to uphold fundamental rights worldwide, particularly in the Euro-Mediterranean region. Given that the new European Pact on Migration and Asylum and the Return Directive raise serious human rights concerns, this project aims to analyze the tensions between these measures and the European anti-discrimination framework, with a focus on Tunisia's role in externalization policies. 

Students will conduct a comparative legal analysis, identify potential normative conflicts, and propose avenues for strategic litigation. A research trip to Tunisia, undertaken in collaboration with the Faculty of Legal, Political, and Social Sciences of Tunis, will complement the research with interviews and field observations. The project also includes the development of advocacy tools and the organization of events to document forms of structural racism within European migration policies.

• Partner: Avocats Sans Frontières (ASF) 
• Tutor: Maëlys Renoux San Millan

This is a joint clinic project with the Acces to Justice law clinic programme.

This clinic project is conducted in partnership with Intérêt à Agir, an association of legal professionals committed to defending the public interest and ensuring effective access to rights. The organisation is particularly engaged in strategic litigation in areas such as migration, social rights, environmental protection and responsible economy. Within this collaboration, our group focuses on the issue of legal aid in family reunification procedures for beneficiaries of international protection. In France, recent legal and administrative developments increasingly exclude family members living abroad from eligibility for legal aid when challenging visa refusals, which raises serious concerns regarding equality before the law and access to justice.

The project is structured around two complementary dimensions:

First, a legal and comparative research component aims to review relevant case law at European level (CJEU, ECtHR) as well as national legislation and jurisprudence, in order to understand how legal aid and access to justice are framed across different EU Member States. 

Second, a field research component will be carried out through interviews with NGOs, legal practitioners and specialised organisations across Europe. These interviews will help document how
legal aid is concretely implemented in family reunification procedures, identify recurring obstacles, and highlight good practices or innovative mechanisms.

The main objective of the project is to support Intérêt à Agir in its broader litigation and advocacy work by strengthening effective access to justice for families seeking reunification. More specifically, the project aims to identify legal arguments, comparative insights and practical solutions that can help challenge the current exclusion of family members abroad from legal aid eligibility based on residency requirements. Ultimately, this work intends to inform strategic litigation, support potential reforms, and contribute to securing fair, accessible and effective legal assistance for refugee family reunification cases.

• Partner: Intérêt à Agir 
• Tutor: Jill Alpes 

Since 13th November 2015 and the reintroduction of border controls by France at the internal borders of the European Union, people in exile have been almost systematically and illegally returned to Italy without being able to assert their right to asylum. They are subject to brutal treatment by law enforcement, (including being chased, which can put them in danger.

Along with the criminalization of people in exile is the criminalization of those who show solidarity with them. Several forms of obstruction and repression have been observed in Briançon in recent years: repeated identity checks of activists, legal proceedings, intimidation and surveillance, spurious fines, and the recording of some activists' personal information in police files, notably the FAED (Automated File of Electronic Documents), and very likely in many other files (TAJ, N-SIS II, etc.). The association's legal team, assisted by lawyers (members of the French Lawyers' Union and La Quadrature du Net), and accompanied by a lawyer, initiated proceedings in early 2024 to exercise the right of access to the personal data recorded in seventeen files and processing systems for some thirty activists.

The clinic project aims to analyze the legal framework of this data collection and compare it to the practices of law enforcement and government agencies. It will aim to identify the difficulties encountered by the association in its relations with data controllers and to formulate advice and recommendations to help those in solidarity to exercise their rights of access, rectification and erasure.

• Partner: Mouvement Citoyen Tous Migrants
• Tutor: Etienne Margaillan