Browsing by discipline "Folkrätt"

This thesis explores EU Member States competence to conclude an international convention governing multimodal transport liability, namely the Rotterdam Rules, which has been drafted by UNCITRAL and has been opened for signatures in 2009. There are several international maritime conventions currently in force and therefore possibly applicable for a contract of carriage, and this has been considered as one of the obstacles for boosting multimodal transport including a sea leg. If the Rotterdam Rules will enter into force it will be the first binding universal regime governing multimodal transport liability. 25 ratifications are required in order to the convention to enter into force. At the time of writing only 3 states have ratified the Rules, Spain being the only EU Member State so far. The main concern is whether the Member States ratifying the Rotterdam Rules would risk a treaty conflict stemming from EU law. This will be elaborated through the EU Treaties and from the position of an EU Member State. In order to have an understanding on the topic and the related problems, the thesis begins with an introductory part on the background, context and objectives of the Rotterdam Rules as well as some general remarks on the current state of affairs in Europe. The theoretical perspectives will cover international law considerations based on the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties as well as international maritime conventions from The Hague Rules to the pending Rotterdam Rules. Treaties on the European Union will be elaborated on the parts relevant for exercising competence in the area of transport. The possibility that EU would join the Rotterdam Rules along with the Member States is also discussed. While the Treaties may not provide comprehensive answer to the competence questions, relevant case-law of the Court of Justice of the European Union will be elaborated also. The Union is becoming increasingly active in transport matters. The Commission has already issued several White Papers in the field of transport. Strategic plans have been made and expert groups established for planning a regional transport regime. It will be argued that the competence of the EU has considerably expanded through the judicial activism of the Union institutions and the Court of Justice. Although the Lisbon Treaty was aimed to clarify the competence questions, the attempt was not very successful. Many ambiguities are left and these would require further clarification. The Commission and the Court have often taken a rather protective stand. The EU law shall prevail over anything else. The Union values such as unity and coherence have been used as a recourse to concerted action. Also based on the case-law it seems evident that the principles of EU law such as the duty of loyal cooperation have at times been interpreted so as to render shared competence meaningless. As the case-law suggests there are obvious risks for the Member States autonomous action. Even if the Member States possess competence they may be pre-empted to act. Under the shared competence the Member States may only exercise their competence to the extent that the Union has not exercised its competence or has ceased exercising its competence. At the moment the Union has not exercised its competence on the area of multimodal transport liability, it is therefore contended that for the time being the competence lies with the Member States. The main argument of the thesis is that there is no treaty conflict foreseeable between the Rotterdam Rules and the Treaties. But there is a risk of conflict anyway. The conflict would stem from diverging interests and thus be a clash of values. If the Union would choose not to conclude the Rotterdam Rules but rather continue developing its own regime, this may be a problem for those Member States who have concluded the Rotterdam Rules. Of course on the condition that the Rotterdam Rules eventually enter into force. The poor record of signatures may imply that the Member States are not confident on their competence but it may also imply dissatisfaction with the substance of the Rotterdam Rules. It is recommended that the Member States cooperate with the Union institutions in order to avoid conflicts. A mixed agreement would be one option but that may entail practical problems as it leaves the competence questions intact. Lastly it will be elaborated whether a universal regime on the multimodal transport is achievable at all.

This thesis is concerned with the predictability of the fair and equitable treatment (FET) standard. The aim is to understand the North American approach to international investment arbitration, especially how the FET standard has been interpreted and applied. Today, most Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs) and Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) contain a clause on Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS). ISDS allows disputes between foreign investors and the host country to be settled through international investment arbitration (IIA). In the last 20 years, investment disputes resolved through ISDS have increased substantially. Despite its growing popularity, ISDS clauses have not gone without their fair share of public critique. In Europe, the criticism against IIA culminated during the discussions on whether to include an ISDS clause in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). There was a fear that American investors would be able to influence European regulators by threatening them with costly proceedings through the ISDS clause. This has been referred to as causing a “regulatory chill” on legislative initiatives. Integral in the critique of ISDS is the assumption that proceedings in international investment arbitration are somehow biased towards investors. While this is by no means true statistically, the vagueness of investment protection standards, such as the FET standard, are often used as an example of the unpredictability of the whole system. Allegedly, host states are forced to settle the dispute as they perceive IIA as unpredictable. It is therefore the unpredictability of the investment protection standard that is the main driver behind the critique against the whole system. The thesis draws its theoretical inspiration from Critical Legal Studies in an attempt to meet the critique in the same theoretical framework. The objective of the theory is to discern the legal culture in which investment awards are given. By familiarizing with this culture, I postulate that there are patterns of behavior that, once known, increase the predictability of IIA as a whole. With regards to the FET standard, I argue that its predictability is determined by how readily an impartial person could recognize a violation of the standard. The analysis is limited to this standard, because of its prominent status in investment disputes. It is by far the most popular standard on which investors base their claims. The standard has been criticized because of its vagueness, which allegedly gives the arbitrators too much discretion in deciding the investment disputes. The analysis of the predictability of the FET standard can thus be seen as a representation of the predictability of the system as a whole. The focus of the analysis is limited to investment disputes decided under chapter 11 of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). It functions as a representation of the North American interpretation of the standard and provides for an excellent example of how investment arbitration can be used efficiently between developed economies. This thesis takes a qualitative approach to the question as the focus of the analysis is on a handful of prominent NAFTA chapter 11 awards. The analysis is divided into the interpretation and application of the FET standard. The analysis of the interpretation focuses on the theoretical argumentation on which Tribunals have supported their awards. Here, the main conclusion is that the FET standard is considered part of the customary international law minimum standard of treatment of aliens, also referred to as “CILMSTA.” There is a test that most Tribunals use to determine whether acts of host states reach this standard. The test aims to reflect the actions of the state with the likely reaction of impartial persons and to determine whether this body of people would be “outraged” or “shocked” at the actions of the state. The chapter on the application of the standard is a more concrete approach. When applied, the standard is not used as such, but is actualized through one of its subsequent elements. If one or many of the elements can be considered to satisfy the test of “outrage” or “shocking”, then there has been a violation of the FET standard. As it becomes evident throughout my survey of prominent awards, Tribunals are cautious of finding a violation of the standard. The threshold for breaching the standard is high, and it is only in exceptionally pronounced cases where the requirements of the test have been met. In conclusion, it is evident that most Tribunals reflect the actions of the state to the reaction of an average impartial person. Tribunals are mostly conscious of the fact that a violation of the standard should be predictable and thus representative of a broader understanding of fair and equitable treatment in customary international law. In the interest of correcting false perceptions that many concerned state actors may have, this thesis hopes to contribute with a nuanced perspective of the predictability of the FET standard in North American investment arbitration.

Chicagon yleissopimuksen liitteiden eli ilmailun ammattikielessä ”ICAO Annexien” oikeudellinen asema on herättänyt keskustelua ilmailuoikeuden tutkijoiden keskuudessa lähes koko yleissopimuksen voimassaoloajan. Sopimuksella perustetaan Kansainvälinen siviili-ilmailujärjestö ICAO, jolle annetaan tehtäväksi myös laatia sopimukseen liitettäviä standardeja, jotka lähtökohtaisesti tulevat voimaan, ellei jäsenvaltioiden enemmistö niitä määräajassa vastusta. Sopimusvaltioiden velvoitteet on kuitenkin Chicagon yleissopimuksessa määritelty väljästi, ja lisäksi valtioille annetaan mahdollisuus poiketa sopimuksen mukaisista standardeista ilmoittamalla asiasta ICAOlle. Tässä tutkielmassa selvitetään ICAO Annexien oikeudellista asemaa tarkastelemalla aiempien kirjoittajien näkemyksiä asiasta ja niiden perusteluja, samoin kuin Chicagon yleissopimuksen sanamuotoja, syntyhistoriaa ja esitöitä. Huomiota kiinnitetään myös sopimuksessa määrättyihin sanktioihin standardien noudattamisen laiminlyönnistä sekä ICAOn myöhemmin käyttöönottaman auditointimenettelyn vaikutukseen liitteiden velvoittavuuteen. Toiseksi tarkastellaan sopimusliitteiden voimaansaattamistapaa Suomessa. Liitteitä ei ole saatettu voimaan valtiosopimusten osalta normaalisti käytetyin tavoin, vaan niiden sisältämät standardit on otettu huomioon kansallisissa määräyksissä viranomaistasolla. Tutkielmassa selvitetään muihin liikennealan kansainvälisten sopimusten liitteisiin vertaamalla, miten ICAO Annexien asema mahdollisesti poikkeaa niistä, ja onko Annexien erilainen täytäntöönpanotapa näiden erojen vuoksi perusteltu. Vertailukohteiksi on valittu jokaisesta liikennemuodosta (ilmailu, merenkulku, raideliikenne, tieliikenne) lähtökohtaisesti kolme merkittävää kansainvälistä sopimusta. Tutkimus osoitti, että Chicagon yleissopimuksen liitteet eivät ole oikeudellisesti velvoittavia. Ne ovat pikemminkin kansainvälisen järjestön tuottamaa materiaalia, joka ei ole luonteeltaan oikeudellista, mutta jota valtiot pääsääntöisesti noudattavat oman etunsa vuoksi. Liitteille annettu asema ilmenee selvimmin yleissopimuksen esitöistä, joiden mukaan liitteille ei ole haluttu antaa sitovaa asemaa ja siihen pyrkivät esitykset on hylätty. Muista liitteistä poikkeava asema on kuitenkin ICAO Annex 2:lla, jonka mukaisten lentosääntöjen noudattaminen aavan meren yläpuolella on selkeästi määritelty pakolliseksi ja niistä poikkeamiselle on asetettu oikeudellisten seuraamusten uhka. Myös yleissopimuksessa määrätyt, todistusten ja lupakirjojen vastavuoroiseen tunnustamiseen liittyvät sanktiot tosiasiassa lisäävät merkittävästi valtioiden halukkuutta standardien noudattamiseen, samoin kuin ICAOn auditointitulosten julkistamiseen liittyvä kansainvälisen maineen menetyksen riski. ICAO Annexien asema siis poikkeaa monista muista liikennealan sopimusten liitteistä; ne eivät ole yleissopimuksen erottamaton osa, vaan liitetty siihen yksinomaan ”käytännön syistä”. Tämän vuoksi liitteitä ei ole myöskään tarvinnut saattaa voimaan tavanomaisten valtiosopimuksen liitteiden tavoin, vaan ne on voitu ottaa huomioon viranomaismääräyksissä. Määräysten antamiseen on ilmailulaissa täsmälliset ja tarkkarajaiset valtuutukset.

Finland is known for its language legislation which deals with the right to use one’s own language in courts and with public officials. In order to examine just how well the right to use one’s own language actually manifests in Finnish society, I examined the developments of language related rights internationally and in Europe and how those developments manifested in Finland. I also went over Finland’s linguistic history, seeing the developments that have lead us to today when Finland has three separate language act to deal with three different language situations. I analyzed the relevant legislations and by examining the latest language barometer studies, I wanted to find out what the real situation of these language and their identities are. I was also interested in the overall linguistic situation in Finland, which is affected by rising xenophobia and the issues surrounding the ILO 169. My findings were that while Finland writes good legislation, its actual implementation leaves a lot to be desired. An individual’s linguistic rights are supposed to be self evident, yet authorities often do not feel like providing them. Many minorities are also unaware of the existence of their linguistic rights. There is a lot of work to do in order to make sure that public authorities really live up to the language requirements that they are set and that minority language users are more aware of their rights. If minority language speakers do not know of their rights, they cannot demand them and the authorities will not automatically provide them for thinking that there would be no need for them. Language plays a complicated role in society but if a society, like Finland, decides to acknowledge multiple languages as deserving of being a part of Finland’s society, the society should also deliver.

Tiivistelmä – Referat – Abstract In August 2017, the decades-long tension between Myanmar and its most vulnerable stateless ethnic minority group, the Rohingya, came to a head after a small faction of Rohingya militants attacked 30 police barracks along the Myanmar-Bangladesh border. In response, the Myanmar army retaliated with unmatched ferocity, systematically organising and executing a pogrom against the Rohingya and their villages. It has been estimated that within a year, approximately 1.1 million Rohingya were forced out of Northern Rakhine State to seek refuge in other countries in the region, primarily in Bangladesh, where the vast majority of whom remain to this day in squalid, under-resourced, and overpopulated refugee camps. Meanwhile, the international refugee law regime is made up of a multitude of constituent elements, ranging from international and regional instruments and organisations to bilateral agreements between states. This thesis is concerned with the extent to which the international refugee law regime is able to protect the Rohingya. The Rohingya are stranded as refugees in a region that has historically rejected the cornerstone protectionary instrument of the regime, namely, the 1951 Refugee Convention. None of the states that are currently hosting the Rohingya subscribe to the Convention. In such a stark legal vacuum, this thesis tests the reach of the regime in providing protection to the Rohingya. This thesis first studies the development of the international refugee law regime at large, underscoring the main organisations and instruments responsible for the management of refugee crises. In particular, the thesis highlights the politically motivated resettlement programmes coordinated by refugee management organisations during the latter half of its evolution, just before the establishment of the UNHCR. Here, the thesis also introduces the principle of non-refoulement as a pivotal feature of the regime, both as codified in treaty law as well as the customary international law status it enjoys generally. Next, the thesis turns to contextualising the origins of the Rohingya refugee crisis. The Rohingya share an especially volatile relationship with Burma. Thus, the thesis provides an overview of the political history of Burma, particularly emphasising the Rohingya’s steady descent into statelessness. Over the past three decades, the Rohingya’s claim to Burmese citizenship (or lack thereof) has been leveraged by Burma to justify increasingly brutal pogroms against them. Finally, the thesis examines the application of non-refoulement in the context of the 2017 Rohingya crisis. First, the thesis considers the customary law status of the principle in greater detail, and establishes the fulfilment of state practice and opinio juris. Then, the thesis examines the form and extent to which non-refoulement is applied in the context of the 2017 Rohingya refugee crisis. Having established that there is indeed a customary law of non-refoulement, the thesis confirms that the rule is binding the states in Southeast Asia, even though they are not party to any refugee convention. Finally, the thesis turns to examining scholarly contributions on the topic of refugee protection in Southeast Asia. Majority of legal scholarship tends to emphasise the availability of alternative regulatory frameworks that extend some degree of protection to refugees. However, this thesis concludes by arguing that although these alternatives offer complementary protection as part of the international refugee law regime, it is necessary to develop a bespoke regional instrument that addresses a broad spectrum of rights that protect vulnerable refugees.

Non-heterosexual people are still facing widespread discrimination in Europe, in spite of rights positive legal development. I will approach the issue by using an analytical framework derived from Koskenniemi’s article ‘Human Rights, politics and Love’ for testing how human rights of non-heterosexual people are deferred to politics. I use this framework for showing that the reason for this lies within the heterosexual underpinning of the Convention itself. I will explain how the application of international law fails in providing an environment free of politics, in form of human rights, for non-heterosexual people and how the heterosexual underpinning of the Convention and its interpretation by the Strasbourg System. The way how non-heterosexual people’s rights are deferred to politics is helpful in revealing the heterosexual underpinning of the Convention. This is secondly shown as the non-heterosexual legal subject must first be acknowledged as a legal subject, before it can be represented before the European Court of Human Rights. The first set of case law shows that even though sexual behaviour was considered to fall within the ambit of Art. 8, its application was dependent of the Strasbourg System’s own acknowledgement of the non-heterosexual legal subject as “a criminal”, whose rights could be infringed by deferring them to politics by the need of the “democratic society” to punish non-heterosexual behaviour. This shows the heterosexual underpinning of the Convention, inter alia, as a homosexual applicant’s complaint was considered to be “querulous” in an inadmissibility decision. The chapter reveals how the application of the Convention to non-heterosexual “criminals” as a protective measure towards the “democratic society” was perceived unthinkable, thus it can be stated the Convention was deemed to protect heterosexuals’ rights ab initio. In the next chapter, I show that even though a change happened by the Court’s Dudgeon decision, which established that homosexual sex fell within the ambit of Art. 8, the Strasbourg System continued to defer the right to respect for private life of non-heterosexuals to politics, by allowing governments to continue the micromanagement of non-heterosexual’s private lives, for the protection of, inter alia, others in a “democratic society.” The non-heterosexual legal subject was elevated from the status of a common criminal to a rights holder, whose rights could still be compromised by politics as right-exceptions. In the last case law chapter, I introduce more recent case law where the Court’s choice of interpretation method, based on its own jurisprudence, reveal the heterosexual underpinning of the Convention and the Strasbourg system as a whole. When Art. 14 was first considered to be applicable to sexual orientation in Sutherland, it was, however, restrictively applied to non-heterosexuals in relevantly similar situations as that of heterosexuals. The Strasbourg System repeatedly stated the need of rights protection of non-heterosexuals in different situations by further developing the non-heterosexual legal subject in relation to heterosexuals, whose rights were perceived to be protected ab initio. The main finding is that it can be argued that the European Convention has a heterosexual underpinning, which has become more visible as the Strasbourg System has acknowledged non-heterosexual legal subjectivity in different aspects of live in its jurisprudence. The non-heterosexual legal subject has almost always existed in relation to heterosexuality, which confirms further the heterosexual underpinning of the Convention. For future study it would be meaningful to find what kinds of legal arguments could be evoked for shifting the treatment of non-heterosexuals from a relation to their protection as end in themselves.

This research focuses on crimes against cultural heritage and intends to identify the victims of these crimes by examining the current legal framework and case-law. As the main question consists of an inquiry of who is being violated when cultural heritage is destroyed, the victims here are not the damaged buildings itself but people of different communities. Attacks against cultural heritage have an extensive influence on both individual and collective identity, due to its direct link between the physical violation of property and the human dimension. Despite the extensive research in the field of international cultural heritage law, the situation surrounding the classification of victims in this particular context still needs clarification. This thesis will explain the specific characteristics of these types of victims and investigate what the unique characteristics of cultural heritage can bring to the theoretical construction of victims in general. To highlight the specific nature of these crimes, this thesis pays particular attention to how cultural heritage issues are regulated under current international law and how the current legal framework categorises the crimes against cultural heritage. The subject is limited to situations where tangible cultural heritage is destroyed during an armed conflict. The aim is to present the current international legal framework regarding cultural heritage protection and to find out how these crimes are assessed both in international treaties and the case-law of international courts. The research will explain in general terms how international treaty law protects the cultural heritage of all humankind and what forms its legal basis. This thesis will introduce the question of whether the crimes against cultural heritage are assessed as a crime against property or crime against people. The research is conducted by emphasising a doctrinal method and case study analysis with characteristics of critical approach. Through the case study approach, it is possible to map out the elements that the International Criminal Court has been emphasising when interpreting the victims of cultural heritage crimes. The most significant legal case of for this research is the case of Al Mahdi in ICC: it is the first case that defines the victims of these crimes and from this perspective showcases how much damage cultural heritage destruction can produce. Regarding the previous legal cases when the cultural heritage has been destroyed, this thesis will also describe the case-law of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Ultimately, the thesis will find out who are the victims of cultural heritage crime and how what is the legal basis of their status. This thesis presents the distinctive categories of cultural heritage victims and examines what forms the destruction can take on for different groups. The assessment is primarily based on the case of Al Mahdi, but also the general theory about the legal position of victims in international criminal law framework will be presented. Particular attention will be paid to the international community as a victim and the role of UNESCO as its representative. Also, the phenomenon of iconoclasm is reflected to find out what legal consequences to consider if the damaging actions would be categorised as iconoclastic. Therefore, in order to effectively safeguard the heritage of all humankind, the international community needs to recognise that cultural heritage crime is always a serious violation of international law that has severe effects on people on various levels.

The thesis reviews the concept of command responsibility under International humanitarian law and International criminal law in the context of cyber armed conflicts. The aim is to examine the existing rules governing armed conflicts as well as the law of command responsibility and to find the elements and characteristics which are most likely to cause uncertainties and challenges in the application of the doctrine of command responsibility in cyber armed conflicts. The observation will be focused on the responsibility of military commanders and on the conduct of cyber attacks constituting a violation of International humanitarian law. In order to understand the topic, the thesis takes a brief look to the development of cyber warfare, the means and methods in cyber armed conflicts and the special characteristics relating to the phenomenon which are likely to cause challenges for the application and interpretation of the rules of International humanitarian law. Furthermore, the conditions triggering the application of the International humanitarian law in cyber armed conflicts will be presented. Similarly, the development, purpose and nature of command responsibility will be discussed. The observation highlights the inconsistencies and political sensitivity of the command responsibility judgments in the history and raises the principal elements of the criminal liability of a military commander which are likely to raise challenges in the context of cyber warfare. These elements will be further discussed in the last part, where the special characteristics of cyber armed conflicts are combined with the elements of command responsibility. Two central questions are the existence of ‘effective control’ between the commander and the attacker and the existence of required standard of knowledge on the part of the commander of the attack constituting a violation. The inconsistencies and ambiguities of the law of command responsibility will observed critically in the light of its double-sided interest of ensuring the compliance with International humanitarian law and enforcing criminal liability in consistence with the fundamental principles of criminal law. The political sensitivity of both command responsibility and the cyber phenomenon will be taken into account in the discussion.

Vuosittain maailmalla tapahtuu lukuisia merionnettomuuksia. Suurille rahtialuksille ja öljytankkereille tapahtuvat haverit ovat määrällisesti vähentyneet alusten merikelpoisuuden jatkuvasti kehittyessä. Samalla alusten koko ja niiden kuljettamat lastit ovat kuitenkin kasvaneet. Haaksirikot aiheuttavat siksi potentiaalisesti entistä suurempaa ympäristöllistä ja taloudellista vahinkoa. Merenkulku on läpi ihmiskunnan historian ollut olennaista kaupankäynnin kannalta. Rannikkovaltioilla on perinteisesti ollut velvollisuus tarjota hädässä oleville aluksille pääsy suojasatamaan riippumatta alusten alkuperästä tai määränpäästä. Oikeus päästä suojasatamaan on ollut merenkulkijoiden, alusten, sekä kuljetettavan lastin henkivakuutus. Merenkulkualan ja meripelastuksen kehittyessä, sekä ympäristötietoisuuden lisääntyessä, on rannikkovaltioiden suhtautuminen suojasatamakysymykseen kuitenkin muuttunut. Nykyisin ei enää voida pitää itsestään selvänä, että aluksella olisi oikeus hakeutua vieraan valtion alueelle suojaan. Aluksen oikeus päästä suojasatamaan on nykyisin ehdollinen oikeus, jonka rannikkovaltio voi tietyin perustein kieltää. Tutkielmassa käsitellään suojasatamakysymyksen historiaa sekä nykypäivän tilannetta, sekä tarkastellaan ongelmia, jotka kysymyksen myötä nousevat esiin. Tutkielmassa perehdytään sekä voimassa olevaan kansainvälisoikeudelliseen oikeussäännöstöön, että kansainvälisiin ja eurooppalaisiin toimenpiteisiin suojasatamakysymyksen ratkaisemiseksi. Tutkielmassa käydään läpi myös relevantit kansainväliset oikeustapaukset, joka selventävät muutosta yleisestä suojasatamakäytännöstä kansainväliseksi ongelmakysymykseksi, ja hahmottavat nykyistä kansainvälisoikeudellista suhtautumista asiaan. Koska kyseessä on ikiaikainen merioikeudellinen käytäntö, on olennaista huomioida muutokset myös kansallisella tasolla ja nykypäivän arvomaailmassa. Ne muovaavat suojasatamakysymyksen sellaiseksi kun se nykypäivänä on ja vaikuttavat ongelman taustalla. Työn tavoitteena on tuoda esille ajankohtainen kysymys oikeudesta suojasatamaan, selvittää syyt sen ongelmallisuuden taustalla sekä etsiä mahdollisia vaihtoehtoja ja näkökulmia ongelman ratkaisemiseksi.

I denna avhandling behandlas de papperslösas rättigheter. Frågeställningen är huruvida de papperslösa reellt sett tilldelas rättigheter under internationell rätt samt hur dessa tar sig uttryck i den praktiska tillämpningen av rättigheterna i nationell rätt. Gruppen papperslösa är heterogen och beteckningen är ofta negativ, då gruppen ofta definieras som alla individer, som inte befinner sig lagligt i staten. Dessa individer kan ha kommit in i staten illegalt, stannat kvar i staten efter att visumet löpt ut eller till exempel arbeta, även om deras visum inte tillåter detta. Valet av termen papperslös är gjort enligt det vanligaste uttrycket i diskursen, men även andra benämningar på gruppen förekommer. Avhandlingen är tudelad och strävar efter att belysa rättigheterna genom en översikt av de människorättsliga instrumenten samt genom exempel ur den nationella tillämpningen. I avhandlingens första del behandlas de papperslösas rättigheter under internationell rätt. Behandlingen av rättigheterna är långt begränsad till de internationella människorättsliga instrumentens tillämplighet för gruppen papperslösa. Den första delen delas ytterligare in i de papperslösas rättigheter under internationell global rätt genom dokumenten från Förenta Nationerna samt i de papperslösas rättigheter under europeisk rätt. I sin helhet kan konstateras att de människorättsliga dokumenten i huvudsak är tillämpliga på alla människor och är således även tillämpliga på de papperslösa. Ytterligare är principen om icke-diskriminering av vikt, då den stadgar om förbud mot olik behandling av individer på basis av till exempel nationalitet eller ursprung. De senaste åren har fokus speciellt i Europa lagts på begränsandet av illegal migration, vilket lett till ökade kriminaliseringar i medlemsstaterna och en allt mer främlingsfientlig attityd. Verkställigheten av dessa mänskliga och sociala rättigheter är således begränsad, varpå en granskning av rättigheterna på nationell nivå är relevant. I avhandlingens andra del behandlas de papperslösas rättigheter efter ett beslut om av- eller utvisning, innan personen å myndigheternas vägnar kan avlägsnas från statens territorium samt de papperslösas rätt till hälsovård. Dessa två områden behandlades av den finska riksdagen under våren 2015 och har även varit aktuella i Sverige speciellt under hösten och vintern 2015. Frågorna har ytterligare aktualiserats av migrationsströmmen till Europa, genom vilken behov av skärpt reglering lyfts fram. Grannländerna Finland och Sverige är naturliga jämförelseobjekt, då det finns stora likheter mellan staterna, men ländernas migrationslagstiftning innehåller skillnader. Beträffande de papperslösas rättigheter i staten efter ett beslut om av- eller utvisning, men innan personen å myndigheternas vägnar kan avlägsnas från staten, kan det konstateras att personens samarbetsvillighet i återvändandeprocessen är central. Ingen tydlig internationell reglering finns, även om Europaparlamentets och rådets direktiv 2008/115/EG av den 16 december 2008 om gemensamma normer och förfaranden för återvändande av tredjelandsmedborgare som vistas olagligt i medlemsstaterna, stadgar om vissa minimirättigheter för personer som inte kan återsändas. Grundtanken i regleringen är att individer antingen bör avlägsnas från statens territorium, eller beviljas uppehållstillstånd. Direktivet har kritiserats starkt ur människorättsperspektiv. Behandlingen av ämnet utgår från den nya finska lagstiftningen. Efter utvecklingen i speciellt Sverige under hösten 2015 och trolig kommande lagstiftning är skillnaden mellan de två staternas reglering och retorik betydligt mindre än väntad. Beträffande rätten till hälsovård kan det konstateras att alla individer oberoende av legal status, har rätt till åtminstone brådskande vård. De olika människorättsdokumenten är eniga om att en grundläggande rätt till vård för alla individer finns, även om utformningen av rätten varierar mellan instrumenten. Vad begreppet brådskande vård innebär i praktiken är dock inte helt entydigt. Inom denna rättighet finns större skillnader mellan staternas reglering. Papperslösa har således rättigheter svart på vitt, men lever ofta i en gråzon i viken rättigheterna är begränsade eller otillgängliga. Regleringen av irreguljär migration är viktig för staters suveränitet och det är här rättighetssfären och begränsningarna möts.