Céline Hocquet

• European LL.B (Lille Catholic University, France)
• LL.M in European public comparative law (Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University, France)
• B.A. in applied languages (Strasbourg University, France)

I hold an LL.B in European and international law from the Catholic University of Lille (France) and a B.A. in applied languages specialised in English, German and Spanish from the University of Strasbourg (France).

I graduated my LL.M in European public comparative law in Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University (France). During the first year of my Masters, I beneficiated from an Erasmus-grant to spend a year as an exchange student at the Leibniz University of Hanover (Germany). I also did a 3-months research stay in Germany funded by the Franco-German Youth Office during the second year of my Masters as part of my master’s dissertation project.

I have various experiences in teaching, tutoring and mentoring. In 2016/2017, I worked as a French language assistant in a secondary school and as a DELF examiner (French language examination for non-natives) in Dublin (Ireland). Since the start of my Ph.D, I worked as a Postgraduate Teaching Assistant for the Birmingham Project in June 2018 and June 2019. I also worked as an Access to Birmingham tutor in June-July 2019. Since September 2018, I am a peer-mentor for first year Ph.D students at Birmingham Law School and since October 2019 I am an Academic Skills Postgraduate Teaching Assistant in the UoB Main Library.

I have also gained further experience in research as I interned the French Senate as a research assistant for the Division for Comparative Legislation from September to December 2014. During my Ph.D, I was a research assistant for two months at UoB, working on a research project analysing the impacts of Brexit on Northern Ireland (February-March 2019).

Lastly, I have also some experience in legal advising as I interned a French law firm specialized in public law, mostly environmental law and immigration law, from April to September 2014.

PhD title

The implications of the use of EU non-entry policies for EU and international refugee law

Supervisors

Professor Fiona de Londras and Dr Kieren McGuffin

The so-called 2015 ‘refugee crisis’ is often presented as a turning point in EU immigration law, justifying the further development and strengthening of EU non-entry policies based on state-cooperation interspersed with some more humanitarian measures. Existing legal scholarship criticised the use of these methods preventing migrants, including potential asylum seekers, from reaching the EU territory. However, such arguments based mostly on a positivist perspective fail to counter the logics underpinning the development of containment and externalisation agendas. Using Third World Approaches to International Law as a theoretical framework, and the EU’s cooperation in migration matters with Turkey, Libya and Afghanistan as case studies, my research aims at critically deconstruct and examine the use of non-entry based on state-cooperation by the EU. Particularly referring to postcolonial blind spots, it aims at offering an alternative understanding of EU immigration and refugee law.

Source of Funding: Birmingham Law School Scholarship.

• Linkedin profile

Conference presentations

• September 2019 – Racialised migration and displacement in a (de)colonising world conference, University of Leeds

Presentation title: “Racialised approaches to migrants in non-entry policies based on state cooperation: the key role of the “myth of difference”

• June 2019 – The Kaleidoscope of Exclusion conference, King’s College London

Presentation title: “Excluding migrants through language: A textual analysis of EU non-entry policies based on state cooperation”

• February 2019 – The Graduate Centre for Europe (GCFE) ‘Workshop on Postcolonialism’, University of Birmingham

Presentation title: “Is the "myth of difference" still exercising a strong hold on EU immigration law? Analysing non-entry policies using Third-World Approaches to International Law”

• September 2018 – Inaugural SOAS-Durham University Postgraduate Colloquium in Critical International Law

Presentation title: “The Reinforced Differentiation between Migration Flows: Analysing Recent Developments of EU Immigration Law from a TWAIL Perspective”

• July 2018 – 18^th Odysseus Network Summer school on EU Asylum and immigration law and policy

Presenting my research project

• June 2018 – University of Birmingham 12th Research Poster Conference

Poster title: “The European Union: Sanctuary or fortress for refugees? – What are the implications for international refugee law of the EU’s use of non-entry policies”

Winner of the College of Arts and Law Best Poster Prize

• February 2017 - 9^th Trinity College Law Student Colloquium in February 2017 (Dublin, Ireland)

Presentation title: “The fight against illegal immigration and respect of Human Rights: Some reflections about the EU-Turkey readmission agreement” 

Blog post

• Contribution to the ESPMI Network Discussion Serie on Decolonising forced migration research

Prizes and awards

• June 2018: College of Arts and Law Best Poster Prize at the University of Birmingham’s 12^th Research Poster Conference
• 2017-2020: College of Arts and Law PhD Scholarship (Covering full-time tuition fees and a maintenance grant)
• October – December 2014: Scholarship for a research stay in Leibniz Universität Hannover (Germany) from the Franco-German Youth Office 

Memberships

• Since October 2019: PGR Students representative
• 2019-2020: Co-Chair of the Graduate Centre for Europe, University of Birmingham
•  2018-2019: Committee member of the Graduate Centre for Europe, University of Birmingham
• Refugee Law Initiative Research Affiliates network

 Other

• July 2018: Participation to the 18^th Odysseus Network Summer school on EU Asylum and immigration law and policy
• August 2017: Study Trip to Turkey funded by the Turkish ministry for culture and tourism