This Article problematises the role of crisis in the governance of asylum in Europe. It unveils its nature, predominance, and implications as a structural component of EU law and policy in this domain. The main point I intend to convey is that crisis, in and by itself, constitutes a system of governance producing very problematic effects. The association between (unwanted) migration and refugee flows with crisis in the European context has allowed for the exceptionalisation of rights and legal safeguards, with the pre-emption of unauthorised arrivals becoming the main concern. The danger, instability, and abnormality connected with crisis pervades law and policy, justifying mechanisms that contravene minimal rule of law standards, including due process guarantees and effective judicial protection. The incremental normalisation of exceptions has led to a position where the suspension of (rule of law-based) governance has become a form of governance. The prorogation of “normal” (rule of law-compliant) arrangements has given way to “exceptional” means of managing asylum, starting with the 2015 “refugee crisis” and the relocation-plus-hotspots scheme, which have now been streamlined as part of the New Pact on Migration and Asylum reforms. The resulting generalisation of derogations, the proliferation of legal fictions and rights negations that the envisaged amendments involve, is progressively normalising a situation of non-access to international protection in the EU, with deleterious consequences not only for asylum seekers, but for the integrity of the EU legal order and fundamental rights at large.

I. Introduction: structuralising crisis. – II. “Crisification”: the incremental normalisation of exceptions. – III. The 2015 ”Refugee Crisis”: the suspension of governance (as a form of governance) – III.1. Relocation (and Dublin prorogation) – III.2. The Hotspot Fiasco – IV. The New Pact Reforms: generalising derogations – IV.1. Screening process: hotspots extended – IV.2. Border Procedure: hotspots normalised – V. Conclusion: reversing the rule, decreasing legality.

European Papers - A Journal on Law and Integration, 2024 9(1), 179-208