From Exile Right to Asylum Right: the Birth of the Modern Asylum Right
Du droit des exilés au droit d’asile : la naissance du droit d’asile moderne
Résumé
The asylum right has been considered by the current historiography as an invention of the French Revolution. This notion was particularly new when compared with the Middle Age and the Early Modern asylum right which was defined as an immunity offered to delinquents or criminals on the run.This paper questions this transformation of the asylum right, from a right protecting delinquents from prosecutions, to a right protecting innocent persons from persecutions, arguing that the change in the jurisdiction actually occurred in the 17th century, when streams of refugees were seeking for asylum in several territories. Thus, in the German Empire, which was an important place of the Refuge, a jus exulum was elaborated by law scholars who questioned the legitimacy of receiving refugees.