The OA case: Game Changer? Private ‘actors of protection’ in European Asylum Law’

The Upper Tribunal referred the question whether the effectiveness or availability of protection ‘is to be assessed solely by reference to the protective acts/functions of State actors or can regard be had to the protective acts/functions performed by private (civil society) actors such as families and/or clans’. Since the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has not previously had the chance to specifically address this question, the case is a unique opportunity for the Court to clarify the matter once and for all. In this article, I analytically juxtapose how this question is addressed on three levels: national practices, in particular that of the Netherlands; the case law of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR); and EU law. In closing, I briefly reflect on how these regimes relate to each other.