Elizabeth White1; 1 University of the West of England, UK
Discussion
My paper examines the contributions of refugee jurists from the former Russian Empire in the creation of the interwar refugee regime. It argues that the measures taken by the League of Nations High Commission for Refugees such as the Nansen Passport and different Refugee Arrangements and Conventions in the 1920s and 1930s, and the creation of the legal category of refugee were the product of the work of these refugee jurists. I show how these jurists had complex overlapping imperial identities and that their work was also influenced by their earlier experiences of Ottoman and Russian imperial jurisdictions. I place their efforts in a broader scope of knowledge production on rights in Russia and Eastern Europe in the interwar period.
