Book launch: Bradley Hillier-Smith's 'The Ethics of State Responses to Refugees'

Join members of CEPPA (Centre for Ethics, Philosophy and Public Affairs) for the launch of Bradley Hillier-Smith's new book The Ethics of State Responses to Refugees. The author will be interviewed by Kieran Oberman (LSE), after which there will all be an opportunity to ask questions and celebrate the publication with some well-deserved drinks. All welcome.

At a time of intense philosophical and political debates on how states ought to respond to refugees, The Ethics of State Responses to Refugees provides an account of what an ethical response to refugees would be. It does this by developing an understanding of the moral duties that states have towards refugees. The first half of the book analyses state practices used in response to refugees, to understand the negative duties of states not to harm or violate the rights of innocent refugees.

The second half analyses morally significant features of contemporary refugee displacement, to understand the positive duties of states to alleviate the distinctive harms and injustices that refugees face. The two halves together thereby outline the negative and positive duties of states towards refugees which together constitute the elements of an ethical response. The book then demonstrates this ethical response is not only urgently required but is also within reach.

Kieran Oberman is an Associate Professor in Philosophy at the London School of Economics (LSE), whose research and numerous publications specialise in the ethics of border control, immigration, migration ethics, the freedoms and rights of migrants, and obligations towards refugees, among other topics in global justice.