The art of drawing lines: Future behaviour and refugee status

This chapter discusses the implications of the UK Supreme Court judgment on gay rights in HJ (Iran) [2010] UKSC 31, which inspired a fierce debate among refugee law scholars on the role of a claimant’s acts, identity and rights, especially in a 2012 article by James Hathaway and Jason Pobjoy in 2012. The chapter argues that the reaction to that decision by Hathaway and Pobjoy’s article crystallises a broader dispute concerning a gay person’s future conduct in refugee law at the heart of refugee protection and how this debate systematises the two broad trends that literature and case law reveal, which are represented by the judgment and the article. The chapter proceeds thereafter to reflects on the reasons why the claimant’s future behaviour causes such trouble and suggests that the refugee law community might in fact be fighting over the ‘right’ solution to a different puzzle.