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
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
Education
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Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California, Berkeley 1981
J.D., Law
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Brooklyn College. City University of New York 1973
B.A., Comparative Literature
Accomplishments
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Lawyer of the Year Award 2015
Awarded by the Immigration Law Section of the Federal Bar Association.
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Chair in International Law 2014
Conferred by the Bank of America Foundation.
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Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters 2012
Awarded by Lehman College at the City University of New York.
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Rutter Award 2012
Awarded by for excellence in teaching.
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California Lawyer of the Year (CLAY) Award 2010
Awarded by the monthly legal magazine, California Lawyer.
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Top 100 Attorneys in California Award 2009
Awarded by Daily Journal.
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Human Rights Award 2004
Awarded by the East Bay Sanctuary Covenant.
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Carol King Award 2003
Awarded by the National Immigration Project.
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Human Rights Award 2002
Awarded by the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
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Annual Award 1998
Awarded by the New York Central American Refugee Center.
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Outstanding Achievement Award 1998
Awarded by the Political Asylum Immigration Representation Project.
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Eighth Annual Phillip Burton Immigration and Civil Rights Award 1997
Awarded by The Immigrant Legal Resource Center.
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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
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El Salvador: Root Causes and Just Asylum Policy Responses 2021
18 Hastings Race & Poverty L.J. 178
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The Struggle for Equality: Women’s Rights, Human Rights and Asylum Protection 2019
48 Sw. U.L. Rev. 531
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El Salvador – A Peace Worse than War: Violence, Gender and a Failed Legal Response 2018
30 Yale Journal of Law & Feminism 3
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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
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Immigration Remedies and Procedural Rights of Migrant Children and Adolescents 2015
Childhood and Migration in Central and North America: Causes, Policies, Practices and Challenges
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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
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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
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Personal Violence, Public Matter: Evolving Standards in Gender-Based Asylum Law 2014
Harvard International Review
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Crimes Without Punishment: An Update on Violence Against Women and Impunity in Guatemala 2013
Hastings Race and Poverty Law Journal
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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
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The Role of Mental Health Professionals in Political Asylum Processing 2010
Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law
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Crimes Without Punishment: Violence Against Women in Guatemala 2010
Hastings Women's Law Journal
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The Implementation of the One-Year Bar to Asylum 2008
Hastings International and Comparative Law Review
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Conscientious Objection as a Basis for Refugee Status: Protection for the Fundamental Right of Freedom of Thought, Conscience and Religion 2007
Refugee Survey Quarterly
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Protecting Victims of Gendered Persecution: Fear of Floodgates or Call to (Principled) Action? 2007
Virginia Journal of Social Policy & the Law
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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
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Revisiting Social Group and Nexus in Gender Asylum Claims: A Unifying Rationale for Evolving Jurisprudence 2003
DePaul Law Review
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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
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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
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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
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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
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Matter of R-A-: An Analysis of the Decision and Its Implications 1999
Interpreter Releases
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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
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Ruminations on In Re Kasinga: The Decision' s Legacy 1998
Southern California Review of Law & Women's Studies
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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
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In Re Kasinga: A Big Step Forward for Gender-Based Asylum Claims, 1996
Interpreter Releases
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Women Refugees: Does the United States Provide Adequate Protection? 1996
Inter Alia, University of Durham, England
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Irreconcilable Differences? Divorcing Refugee Protections from Human Rights Norms 1994
Michigan Journal of International Law
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No Justice, No Peace: Accountability for Rape and Gender-Based Violence in the Former Yugoslavia 1994
Hastings Women's Law Journal
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Chiapas: The Rebellion of the Excluded 1994
Ecumenical Program on Central America & the Caribbean
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Beating a hasty retreat 1993
Peace Review: A Journal of Social Justice
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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
