Dr Regina Jefferies

Dr Regina Jefferies

Post-Doc Fellow
Law & Justice
School of Global & Public Law

Ms. Jefferies is a Teaching Fellow and Scientia PhD Scholar at the University of New South Wales. She is also an affiliate of the Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law and a Visiting Scholar at the UCLA Center for the Study of International Migration. Ms. Jefferies has more than 10 years of experience practicing asylum and refugee law before United States federal administrative agencies, the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. In 2011, she earned her Master of Studies at the University of Oxford in international human rights law. Ms. Jefferies previously served as the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) Arizona Chapter Chair and is a Martindale-Hubbell AV Preeminent-rated attorney.

  • Books | 2018
    Jefferies RM; Chan RL, 2018, Jefferies and Chan's Immigration Simulations: Bridge to Practice, West Academic Publishing, https://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/1640206035
  • Journal articles | 2023
    Jefferies R; Barratt T; Huang C; Bashford A, 2023, 'Regulating Movement in Pandemic Times', Journal of Bioethical Inquiry, 20, pp. 633 - 638, http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11673-023-10292-1
    Journal articles | 2023
    Jefferies R; McAdam J, 2023, 'Locked In: Australia’s COVID-19 Border Closures and the Right to Leave', Australian Year Book of International Law, 41, pp. 185 - 231, http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/26660229-04101002
    Journal articles | 2022
    Gleeson M; Wood T; Barbour B; Jeffries R; Moodley R, 2022, 'Case Law Summaries', International Journal of Refugee Law, 34, pp. 82 - 92, http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ijrl/eeac026
    Journal articles | 2022
    Jefferies R; McAdam J; Pillai S, 2022, 'Can we still call Australia home? The right to return and the legality of Australia’s COVID-19 travel restrictions', Australian Journal of Human Rights, 27, pp. 211 - 231, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1323238X.2021.1996529
    Journal articles | 2021
    Gleeson M; Wood T; Barbour B; Jefferies R; Moodley R, 2021, 'Case Law Summaries', International Journal of Refugee Law, 33, pp. 671 - 681
    Journal articles | 2021
    Golder B; Hush A; Jefferies R; Johns F; Nolan J, 2021, 'Foreword', Australian Journal of Human Rights, 27, pp. 399 - 401, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1323238X.2022.2039056
    Journal articles | 2021
    Jefferies R, 2021, 'Bringing externalization home: the International Civil Aviation Organization and ‘entry screening’ in Australia', Globalizations, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14747731.2021.1989152
    Journal articles | 2021
    Jefferies R, 2021, 'Transnational Legal Process: An Evolving Theory and Methodology', Brooklyn Journal of International Law, 46, pp. 311 - 311, http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3990378
    Journal articles | 2021
    Wood T; Barbour B; Gleeson M; Jefferies R; Moodley R, 2021, 'Kwatra v Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs [2021] FCA 58 (4 February 2021)', INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF REFUGEE LAW, 33, pp. 497 - 505, http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ijrl/eeab048
    Journal articles | 2020
    Barbour B; Gleeson M; Jefferies R; Moodley R, 2020, 'BFH16 v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection [2020] FCAFC 54 (31 March 2020)', INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF REFUGEE LAW, 32, pp. 507 - 518, http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ijrl/eeaa026
    Journal articles | 2020
    Jefferies R; Ghezelbash D; Hirsch A, 2020, 'Assessing Refugee Protection Claims at Australian Airports: The Gap Between Law, Policy, and Practice', MELBOURNE UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW, 44, pp. 162 - 211, http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3746085
    Journal articles | 2019
    Jefferies R, 2019, 'Data Quality and the Law of Refugee Protection in Australia', Court of Conscience, 13, pp. 63 - 63
    Journal articles | 2019
    Jefferies R, 2019, 'Research Access and Adaptation in the Securitised Field of Australian Refugee and Asylum Law', Journal of the Oxford Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, 2019, pp. 49 - 53, https://joxcsls.com/publications/vol-2019/issue-1/research-access-and-adaptation-in-the-securitised-field-of-australian-refugee-and-asylum-law/#_ftn1
    Journal articles | 2012
    Jefferies RM, 2012, 'One of These Things is Not Like the Other: An Analysis of Marriage Under the Immigration and Nationality Act', Law Journal for Social Justice, https://ljsj.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/jefferiesfall2012ljsj.pdf
    Journal articles | 2006
    Jefferies RM, 2006, 'The Supreme Court of Arizona: Its 2004-2005 Decisions', Arizona State Law Journal
    Journal articles | 2005
    Jefferies RM, 2005, 'The Equitable Application of International Law: Revised Principles for a Solution to the Maasai Land Dispute', Arizona State Law Journal
  • Conference Presentations | 2021
    Jefferies R, 2021, 'Street-level Bureaucrats in a Transnational Legal Process: Using Social Network Analysis to Visualise “Hidden” Decisions in Australian Asylum Law', presented at Osgoode GLSA Graduate Student Conference 2020-2021, 19 February 2021
    Other | 2020
    Gleeson M, 2020, Case Law Summaries (Australia and New Zealand), Oxford University Press, , http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ijrl/eeab005
    Conference Presentations | 2020
    Jefferies R; Crisp J; FitzGerald D; Richard AC, 2020, 'Immigration, Asylum, and National Security: A Comparative Perspective', presented at 2020 Ambassador William C. Battle Symposium, Miller Center, University of Virginia, 26 October 2020, https://millercenter.org/miller-center-presents/immigration-asylum-and-national-security-comparative-perspective
    Reports | 2020
    Jefferies R; Ghezelbash D; Hirsch A, 2020, Assessing Protection Claims at Airports: Developing procedures to meet international and domestic obligations, The Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, http://dx.doi.org/10.26190/unsworks/27960, https://www.kaldorcentre.unsw.edu.au/publication/policy-brief-9-airports
    Conference Presentations | 2020
    Jefferies R, 2020, 'Ethics around researching Forced Migration', presented at Research Methods Workshop, Forced Migration Research Network and Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, UNSW Sydney, 27 November 2020
    Conference Presentations | 2020
    Jefferies R, 2020, 'Habitus and Transnational Legal Process in Australian Asylum Law', presented at Law and Society Association Annual Conference, 28 May 2020
    Conference Presentations | 2019
    Jefferies R, 2019, 'Street-level Bureaucrats, Discretion and Data: Pre-Screening Protection Claims at the Border', presented at Kaldor Centre Annual Conference 2019, 26 November 2019
    Conference Presentations | 2017
    Jefferies RM, 2017, 'The Case for Judicial Enforcement of the Fundamental Obligation of Non-Refoulement in the United States', presented at International Meeting on Law and Society, Mexico City, Mexico, 20 June 2017 - 23 June 2017

2018-2019 PLuS Alliance International Interdisciplinary Researcher

2018 National Advocate of the Year, Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota

2017 Special Recognition Award, Advocates for Human Rights

My research explores the pathways, drivers and effects of legal consciousness and norm internalisation in official decision-making within transnational human rights frameworks. The overarching theme of the work is tackling complex – and often hidden – problems in refugee law and policy through the generation of original data and analysis to inform and influence policy implementation and development. The research links the fields of International Refugee Law, Human Rights Law, Administrative Law, and Constitutional Law, while drawing interdisciplinary connections with sociology and policy implementation studies. I combine doctrinal review with empirical and data-driven social science methods to narrow the gap between legal theory and practice, while exploring and developing mechanisms to address “wicked problems” in the migration and refugee law space. My current research agenda consists of two distinct, but related projects: (1) an investigation of international legal compliance which will produce empirical data identifying agents and pathways of internalization in the implementation of transnational refugee law; and (2) an interdisciplinary exploration of how the use of technology influences policy development and State operational compliance with legal norms in the migration and asylum framework.