Research in PROTECT’s Work Package 2 (WP2) focussed on the rights dimension of the international protection regime. It assessed the potential impact of the Global Compacts – the Global Compact for Migration (GCM) and the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR) – on a rights-based system of international protection. The legal research conducted by WP2 researchers aimed at reconstructing the Compacts’ interaction with pre-existing legal frames of protection, that is, their relationships with international treaties and domestic legislation that regulate international protection. The main focus of interest was on the Compacts’ implications for the legal construction and future reform of the EU’s Common European Asylum System, while benefiting from comparative insights on the respective situations in Canada and South Africa.