An emerging regulatory framework for migration: The Libya–Italy agreement and the right of exit

Abstract

In this article, I argue that a new regulatory framework for controlling mobility is emerging globally. To illustrate this, I consider the case of the Italy–Libya agreement on migration control. I argue that the practices of border externalisation exemplified by this case can be understood as a form of regulatory regionalism–the spatial transformation of the state through the incorporation of forms of loose regional governance. While these new forms of governance have been critiqued widely for their negative impact on the protection of human rights and the right of asylum, their implication for a general normative theory of migration remain under-theorised. The article begins to address the new normative questions raised by these governance frameworks by discussing the right of exit. I argue that the changed political practice of border control alters the responsibility of states in this context.