Asylum access adjudication: a multi-level framework for socio-legal research

This article pursues three interconnected goals. First, it identifies key gaps in the literature on asylum adjudication. It argues that, despite the global expansion of barriers limiting access to asylum, existing research has focused primarily on Refugee Status Determination, leaving the topic of access to asylum underexplored, beyond the Global North and single jurisdictions, and employing limited socio-legal research methodologies. In response, the article advances a new research agenda for studying adjudication on access to asylum, drawing on interdisciplinary perspectives from legal, political, and socio-legal theories. To this end, it introduces a multilevel analytical framework for examining asylum access adjudication, investigating the macro (national), meso (court), and micro (individual) factors that influence judicial decision-making.