Dr Nicolette Busuttil

Dr Nicolette Busuttil is a Lecturer in Law within the School of Gender, Law, and Media at SOAS where she lectures on and researches the rights of refugees and migrants under international and EU law, with a focus on persons with disabilities. Nicolette specialises in the intersection between international and European Union (EU) law for this cohort, focusing on the implications of the adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities for refugees and other migrants in the European Union. Her doctoral research examined the impact of the evolution in disability human rights for migrants with mental healthcare needs facing expulsion from the EU and looked at how existing interpretations of the non-refoulment obligation operate to disable migrants with healthcare needs.

Nicolette is a Centre Co-coordinator of (B)OrderS: Centre for the Legal Study of Borders, Migration and Displacement at QMUL, a Research Affiliate of the Refugee Law Initiative (University of London) and a member of the Immigration Law Practitioners Association (ILPA).

Her wider research interests include the impact of inter-state and regional cooperation on the effective implementation of rights in the migration and asylum sphere. She has researched and published on the implementation of the UN Global Compacts for Refugees and for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration for the European international protection framework, as part of the Horizon 2020 PROTECT project. As a former practitioner working with refugees and those in immigration detention in Malta, Nicolette remains involved in initiatives focusing on the implementation of refugee and migration law at the EU’s southern borders and its impact on refugees and other migrants with disabilities.

At SOAS, Nicolette contributes to teaching on the following modules: International Refugee Law (convenor 2023/24); Asylum & Immigration Law; Introduction to EU Law; Criminal Law (convenor 2023/24); and Law, Rights & Social Change.