Would the European Union benefit from a Centralised Asylum Court System? A Critical Study considering the Current Legal Situation and with an Eye to the Future

This present study sets out to consider whether the European Union would benefit from a centralised asylum court system, particularly in the final instance or appeal stage. The Common European Asylum System as it now is permits a lot of divergences in asylum determination both at the initial sages and when cases come to appeal. This study will argue that this is because of both the lack of harmonisation in regard to asylum procedures and status determination on the one hand and differences in the judicial approach of Member States on the other. The study will put forward the premise that by harmonising the judicial process, an Asylum Seeker would have their claim scrutinised under the same procedure and approach to the evidence throughout the European Union. While it is acknowledged that this would not lead to an end of discrepancies (one always has to allow for the human factor ) it will at least make sure that the same process is applied uniformly. The European Union legal order, especially concerning the Court of Justice of the European Union is extremely rigid however and it is not an easy task to slot ina new Court system into that Legal Order. To do this the study looks at other instances where there has been an attempt to set up common specialist courts within the EU legal order and examines whether the processes followed inthese attempts can be adapted to accommodate such a court system in the area of Asylum.