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UC Hastings is now UC College of the Law, San Francisco

Learn more here

Karen
Musalo

Professor and Chair in International Law, Director of the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies

  • Office 392-200
  • Email Address musalok@uchastings.edu
  • Telephone (415) 565-4720
Download CV
  • Follow Me on LinkedIn

Biography

Karen Musalo is Professor of Law at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco, California. She is lead co-author of Refugee Law and Policy: An International and Comparative approach (5th edition). She has written extensively on refugee law issues, and contributed to the evolving jurisprudence of asylum law not only through her scholarship, but through her litigation of landmark cases. She was lead attorney in Matter of Kasinga (fear of female genital mutilation as a basis for asylum) and amicus in Matter of A-R-C-G-, the first precedent decision affirming the viability of domestic violence asylum claims. Prof. Musalo is currently co-counsel in Matter of A-B-, in which the principle of protection in domestic violence claims is being challenged by Attorney General Sessions.

Prof. Musalo is recognized for her innovative work on refugee issues, being the first attorney to partner with psychologists in the representation of traumatized asylum seekers, and editing the earliest handbook for practitioners on cross-cultural issues and the impact of culture on credibility in the asylum context. She is a frequent media commentator, quoted in outlets such as The New York Times, Washington Post, The Nation, and El Pais. She has been interviewed on Nightline, CNN International, and NPR’s All Things Considered, and was featured in the PBS documentary Breaking Free: A Woman’s Story.

Prof. Musalo’s current work examines the linkage between human rights violations and migration, focusing on violence against women and children in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras. She is the founding director of the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies, which is internationally known for its research and legal advocacy and for its program of expert consultation to attorneys around the world.

Professor Musalo has received numerous national awards in recognition of her work on behalf of refugees, including the 2010 California Lawyer of the Year Award, the 2009 Daily Journal’s recognition as one of the “Top 100” lawyers in California, and the 2015 Federal Bar Association Immigration Section’s Lawyer of the Year Award. In 2012 she received an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Lehman College, the same year she received UC Law SF’ Rutter Award for Excellence in Teaching. She is a frequent speaker at conferences throughout the United States, Canada, Europe and Latin America.

Expertise

  • Human Rights Law
  • Immigration Law
  • International Law
  • Refugee Law

Education

  1. Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California, Berkeley 1981

    J.D., Law

  2. Brooklyn College. City University of New York 1973

    B.A., Comparative Literature

Accomplishments

  1. Lawyer of the Year Award 2015

    Awarded by the Immigration Law Section of the Federal Bar Association.

  2. Chair in International Law 2014

    Conferred by the Bank of America Foundation.

  3. Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters 2012

    Awarded by Lehman College at the City University of New York.

  4. Rutter Award 2012

    Awarded by for excellence in teaching.

  5. California Lawyer of the Year (CLAY) Award 2010

    Awarded by the monthly legal magazine, California Lawyer.

  6. Top 100 Attorneys in California Award 2009

    Awarded by Daily Journal.

  7. Human Rights Award 2004

    Awarded by the East Bay Sanctuary Covenant.

  8. Carol King Award 2003

    Awarded by the National Immigration Project.

  9. Human Rights Award 2002

    Awarded by the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

  10. Annual Award 1998

    Awarded by the New York Central American Refugee Center.

  11. Outstanding Achievement Award 1998

    Awarded by the Political Asylum Immigration Representation Project.

  12. Eighth Annual Phillip Burton Immigration and Civil Rights Award 1997

    Awarded by The Immigrant Legal Resource Center.

  13. Recognition: The American Lawyer 1997

    Conferred in recognition of the publication " The Public Sector: forty-five young lawyers outside the private sector whose vision andcommitment are changing lives."

Selected Scholarship

  1. El Salvador: Root Causes and Just Asylum Policy Responses 2021

    18 Hastings Race & Poverty L.J. 178

  2. The Struggle for Equality: Women’s Rights, Human Rights and Asylum Protection 2019

    48 Sw. U.L. Rev. 531

  3. El Salvador – A Peace Worse than War: Violence, Gender and a Failed Legal Response 2018

    30 Yale Journal of Law & Feminism 3

  4. Seeking a Rational Approach to a Regional Refugee Crisis: Lessons from the Summer 2014 "Surge" of Central American Women and Children at the US-Mexico Border 2017

    5 J. of Migration and Hum. Security (No. I) 137

  5. Immigration Remedies and Procedural Rights of Migrant Children and Adolescents 2015

    Childhood and Migration in Central and North America: Causes, Policies, Practices and Challenges

  6. The Evolving Refugee Definition: How Shifting Elements of Eligibility Affect the Nature and Focus of Expert Testimony in Asylum Proceedings 2015

    African Asylum at a Crossroads: Activism, Expert Testimony, and Refugee Rights

  7. A Tale of Two Women: The Claims for Asylum of Fauziya Kassinda, Who Fled FGC, and Rody Alvarado, a Survivor of Partner (Domestic) Abuse 2014

    Gender in Refugee Law: From the Margins to the Centre

  8. Personal Violence, Public Matter: Evolving Standards in Gender-Based Asylum Law 2014

    Harvard International Review

  9. Crimes Without Punishment: An Update on Violence Against Women and Impunity in Guatemala 2013

    Hastings Race and Poverty Law Journal

  10. A Short History of Gender Asylum in the United States: Resistance and Ambivalence May Very Slowly be Inching Towards Recognition of Women’s Claims 2010

    Refugee Survey Quarterly

  11. The Role of Mental Health Professionals in Political Asylum Processing 2010

    Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law

  12. Crimes Without Punishment: Violence Against Women in Guatemala 2010

    Hastings Women's Law Journal

  13. The Implementation of the One-Year Bar to Asylum 2008

    Hastings International and Comparative Law Review

  14. Conscientious Objection as a Basis for Refugee Status: Protection for the Fundamental Right of Freedom of Thought, Conscience and Religion 2007

    Refugee Survey Quarterly

  15. Protecting Victims of Gendered Persecution: Fear of Floodgates or Call to (Principled) Action? 2007

    Virginia Journal of Social Policy & the Law

  16. La Convencíon de 1951 sobre el Estatuto de la Persona Refugiada y la protección de las mujeres frente a las violaciones de sus derechos fundamentales, 2005

    Revista de derecho migratorio y extranjería

  17. Revisiting Social Group and Nexus in Gender Asylum Claims: A Unifying Rationale for Evolving Jurisprudence 2003

    DePaul Law Review

  18. Claims for Protection Based on Religion or Belief: Analysis and Proposed Conclusions 2002

    United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Legal and Protection Policy Research Series

  19. Steps Forward and Steps Back: Uneven Progress in the Law of Social Group and Gender-Based Claims in the United States 2001

    International Journal of Refugee Law

  20. The Expedited Removal Study: Evaluation of the General Accounting Offices Second Report on Expedited Removal 2000

    Center for Human Rights and International Justice, UC Law SF College of the Law

  21. The Expedited Removal Study: Report on the First Three Years of Implementation of Expedited Removal 2000

    Center for Human Rights and International Justice, UC Law SF College of the Law

  22. Matter of R-A-: An Analysis of the Decision and Its Implications 1999

    Interpreter Releases

  23. The Expedited Removal Study: Report on the Second Year of Implementation of Expedited Removal 01/1999

    Center for Human Rights and International Justice, UC Law SF College of the Law

  24. Ruminations on In Re Kasinga: The Decision' s Legacy 1998

    Southern California Review of Law & Women's Studies

  25. The Expedited Removal Study: Report on the First Year of Implementation of Expedited Removal 1998

    International Human Rights and Migration Project, Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, Santa Clara University

  26. In Re Kasinga: A Big Step Forward for Gender-Based Asylum Claims, 1996

    Interpreter Releases

  27. Women Refugees: Does the United States Provide Adequate Protection? 1996

    Inter Alia, University of Durham, England

  28. Irreconcilable Differences? Divorcing Refugee Protections from Human Rights Norms 1994

    Michigan Journal of International Law

  29. No Justice, No Peace: Accountability for Rape and Gender-Based Violence in the Former Yugoslavia 1994

    Hastings Women's Law Journal

  30. Chiapas: The Rebellion of the Excluded 1994

    Ecumenical Program on Central America & the Caribbean

  31. Beating a hasty retreat 1993

    Peace Review: A Journal of Social Justice

  32. Swords into Ploughshares: Why the United States Should Provide Refuge to Young Men Who Refuse to Bear Arms for Reasons of Conscience 1989

    San Diego Law Review

Courses

  1. Refugee Law & Policy
  2. Refugee and Human Rights Clinic

Links

  1. Curriculum Vitae
  2. Publications
  3. Center for Refugee and Gender Studies
  4. Law Review Articles on SSRN
  5. Refugee Law & Policy Casebook Updates

Related News

Faculty Achievements: Fall 2021

11/28/21

Faculty Achievements: Summer 2021

10/09/21
Professor Karen Musalo

Engaged Scholarship Q&A: Karen Musalo

10/07/21
Thousands of Afghans flocked to the airport in Kabul on Monday trying to escape the Taliban. (Shekib Rahmani/Associated Press)

CGRS Director Karen Musalo Publishes LA Times Op-Ed On Afghan Refugee Crisis

08/20/21
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