Awarded by the Immigration Law Section of the Federal Bar Association.

 Lawyer of the Year Award

Conferred by the Bank of America Foundation.

Chair in International Law

Awarded by Lehman College at the City University of New York.

Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters

Rutter Award

Awarded by the monthly legal magazine, California Lawyer.

California Lawyer of the Year (CLAY) Award

Top 100 Attorneys in California Award

Awarded by the East Bay Sanctuary Covenant.

Human Rights Award

Awarded by the National Immigration Project.

Carol King Award

Awarded by the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

Awarded by the New York Central American Refugee Center.

Annual Award

Awarded by the Political Asylum Immigration Representation Project.

Outstanding Achievement Award

Awarded by The Immigrant Legal Resource Center.

Eighth Annual Phillip Burton Immigration and Civil Rights Award

Conferred in recognition of the publication " The Public Sector: forty-five young lawyers outside the private sector whose vision and
commitment are changing lives."

Recognition: The American Lawyer

Immigration Remedies and Procedural Rights of Migrant Children and Adolescents 

The Evolving Refugee Definition: How Shifting Elements of Eligibility Affect the Nature and Focus of Expert Testimony in Asylum Proceedings

A Tale of Two Women: The Claims for Asylum of Fauziya Kassinda, Who Fled FGC, and Rody Alvarado, a Survivor of Partner (Domestic) Abuse

Personal Violence, Public Matter: Evolving Standards in Gender-Based Asylum Law

Crimes Without Punishment: An Update on Violence Against Women and Impunity in Guatemala

A Short History of Gender Asylum in the United States: Resistance and Ambivalence May Very Slowly be Inching Towards Recognition of Women’s Claims

The Role of Mental Health Professionals in Political Asylum Processing

Crimes Without Punishment: Violence Against Women in Guatemala

The Implementation of the One-Year Bar to Asylum

Conscientious Objection as a Basis for Refugee Status: Protection for the Fundamental Right of Freedom of Thought, Conscience and Religion

Protecting Victims of Gendered Persecution: Fear of Floodgates or Call to (Principled) Action?

La Convencíon de 1951 sobre el Estatuto de la Persona Refugiada y la protección de las mujeres frente a   las violaciones de sus derechos fundamentales,

Revisiting Social Group and Nexus in Gender Asylum Claims: A Unifying Rationale for Evolving Jurisprudence

Claims for Protection Based on Religion or Belief: Analysis and Proposed Conclusions

Steps Forward and Steps Back: Uneven Progress in the Law of Social Group and Gender-Based Claims in the United States

The Expedited Removal Study: Evaluation of the General Accounting Offices Second Report on Expedited Removal

The Expedited Removal Study: Report on the First Three Years of Implementation of Expedited Removal

Matter of R-A-: An Analysis of the Decision and Its Implications

The Expedited Removal Study: Report on the Second Year of Implementation of Expedited Removal

Ruminations on In Re Kasinga: The Decision' s Legacy

The Expedited Removal Study: Report on the First Year of Implementation of Expedited Removal

In Re Kasinga: A Big Step Forward for Gender-Based Asylum Claims,

Women Refugees: Does the United States Provide Adequate Protection?

Irreconcilable Differences? Divorcing Refugee Protections from Human Rights Norms

No Justice, No Peace: Accountability for Rape and Gender-Based Violence in the Former Yugoslavia

Chiapas: The Rebellion of the Excluded

Beating a hasty retreat

Swords into Ploughshares: Why the United States Should Provide Refuge to Young Men Who Refuse to Bear Arms for Reasons of Conscience

UC Hastings College of the Law was founded in 1878 as the first law department of the University of California, and today is one of the top-rated law schools in the United States. Our alumni span the globe and are among the most respected lawyers, judges and business leaders today. Our faculty are nationally renowned as both teachers and scholars.

UC Hastings College of the Law

Karen Musalo is Professor of Law at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco, California.  She is lead co-author of Refugee Law and Policy: An International and Comparative approach (5th edition). She has written extensively on refugee law issues, and contributed to the evolving jurisprudence of asylum law not only through her scholarship, but through her litigation of landmark cases. She was lead attorney in Matter of Kasinga (fear of female genital mutilation as a basis for asylum) and amicus in Matter of A-R-C-G-, the first precedent decision affirming the viability of domestic violence asylum claims.  Prof. Musalo is currently co-counsel in Matter of A-B-, in which the principle of protection in domestic violence claims is being challenged by Attorney General Sessions.  

Prof. Musalo is recognized for her innovative work on refugee issues, being the first attorney to partner with psychologists in the representation of traumatized asylum seekers, and editing the earliest handbook for practitioners on cross-cultural issues and the impact of culture on credibility in the asylum context.  She is a frequent media commentator, quoted in outlets such as The New York Times, Washington Post, The Nation, and El Pais.  She has been interviewed on Nightline, CNN International, and NPR’s All Things Considered, and was featured in the PBS documentary Breaking Free: A Woman’s Story.

Prof. Musalo’s current work examines the linkage between human rights violations and migration, focusing on violence against women and children in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras. She is the founding director of the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies, which is internationally known for its research and legal advocacy and for its program of expert consultation to attorneys around the world.  

Professor Musalo has received numerous national awards in recognition of her work on behalf of refugees, including the 2010 California Lawyer of the Year Award,  the 2009 Daily Journal’s recognition as one of the “Top 100” lawyers in California, and the 2015 Federal Bar Association Immigration Section’s Lawyer of the Year Award.   In 2012 she received an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Lehman College, the same year she received UC Hastings’ Rutter Award for Excellence in Teaching.  She is a frequent speaker at conferences throughout the United States, Canada, Europe and Latin America.

Refugee Law and Policy

Gender Asylum

Women's Rights

Child Migrant's Rights

Gender Justice / Central America

Clinical Education

Curriculum Vitae

Publications

Center for Refugee and Gender Studies

Law Review Articles on SSRN

Inside the ‘pure hell’ of Violence against Women in Honduras

For some women fleeing violence, safety means changing US law ‘stuck in the past’

Transgender Women Who Fear Death in Mexico Granted Relief by 9th Circuit

Ruling Changes Little: Guatemalan Women Still Victims

The Right to Asylum: Why Europe Has to Take in Migrants Fleeing Persecution

Credible fears: Central American Women Seek Asylum

United States Must Protect Migrant Children

The U.S. Wants to Help Central Americans – By Letting Fewer Refugees In

Victory of Domestic Violence Survivors Seeking Asylum

Battered Women Deserve a Safe Haven in the U.S.

Immigration Court Gives First Approval of Asylum for Domestic Abuse

US Court Sets Precedent by Ruling Guatemalan Domestic Violence Victim Can Seek Asylum

Board of Immigration Appeals Recognizes Domestic Violence as a Basis for Asylum

In First for Court, Woman Is Ruled Eligible for Asylum in U.S. on Basis of Domestic Abuse

Asylum Standards Weighed before Court

You Can’t Fix the Child Migrant Crisis without Understanding Asylum. Here are 6 Facts

No Easy Solutions for Child Migrant Crisis

Meet Luis. He Fled Gangs in Honduras. But the U.S. Probably Won’t Help Him: Our Asylum Laws Are Failing Central American Migrants

Hilary Clinton Wants Child Migrants Sent Back. Here’s What That Would Look Like,

Legless Cyclist Rides for Asylum Seekers

A Sex Trafficking Victory that Shows just how Broken the System is

Snowden in Legal Limbo, his Flight Blocked by Legal, Political Obstacles

Snowden’s Russia Problem: Why a Libertarian Activist Made Friends with Authoritarian States

Anger at U.S. Complicates Efforts to Capture Snowden

Could Bradley Manning Help Edward Snowden Win Political Asylum?

Should Battered Women be Given Asylum in the U.S.?

Violence Fuels Domestic Rise in Central American Asylum-Seekers

Refugees: How Nations can Meet their International Obligations to Protect the Persecuted

Fronteras y barreras: Retos para las refugiadas en España y Estado Unidos (Borders and Barriers: Challenges for Refugee Women in Spain and the United States)

Credibility, Documentary Evidence and Expert Witnesses in Asylum Claims

Domestic Violence and Fear of Gang Cases in the Aftermath of A-R-C-G-

Fleeing Violence: Finding Prison: The Treatment of Migrant Women in Flight from Domestic Violence in the US Immigration System

Child Migration: A Regional Challenge to Human Rights Commitment

The Battle for Equality in Refugee Law: The Resistance to Protection of Women and Children

Excluding Those Worthy of Protection: How US Interpretation of International Refugee Norms have Consistently Narrowed Protection

Conceptualizing Children's Asylum Claims

Child Migrants: A Journey of Desperation and Hope

Addressing the Asylum Crisis: Religious Contributions to Rethinking Protection in Global Politics

Forensic Psychiatry and Immigration: Cross Cultural Competency (Panelist)

Immigration and Its Adversities: Mental Illness, Detention and Deportation (Panelist)

Hot Topics in Asylum - Particular Social Group Issues (Panelist)

Immigration Law Seminar (Panelist)

Gender Justice in the Americas (Panelist)

Professor of Law, International Law Professorship Chair and Director of the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies

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