ABSTRACT
Legal dilemmas arise from the tension between obligations in relation to crime control cooperation under international law, notably the Migrant Smuggling Protocol and human rights and refugee law. This chapter addresses how Europe can resolve this tension through the balancing of obligations under the overlapping regimes of international law. It discusses the concept of trust, which refers to expectations and predictions about the future behaviour of a cooperation partner, and is crucial to upholding human rights obligations in international cooperation. The chapter highlights the importance of upholding fundamental legal obligations in extraterritorial cooperation and, therefore, unfold the concept of trust in a decision to cooperate, based on legitimacy and respect for human rights obligations. It utilises this approach to trust and legitimacy to analyse and conclude on the significance of the human rights situation in Libya to the lawfulness of European Union/Italian cooperation to combat migrant smuggling.
