ABSTRACT

There are a few essential points that can be taken from the traversal of several thousand years of asylum/sanctuary. First, and most importantly, asylum has repeatedly come into conflict with law. The reasons for this inverse relationship between asylum and law are tied to a second conclusion that we can draw from this history. In describing the genealogy of asylum, there is one aspect that appears strikingly different from the system of refugee law today. Refugee law is about the movement from one sovereign order to another, but never about escaping it altogether. Almost without exception, what the author has discovered have been spaces which in one way or another stood beyond the reach of the sovereign power. A final conclusion which could be drawn is that, while the integrity of asylum has never been absolute, the question of political, religious or social solidarity with its ideals has been indispensable to its functioning, much more so than law.