This book combines philosophical, historical, and legal analysis to clarify the key concepts at stake in the debate over refugees and human rights, and to demonstrate the threat posed by contemporary border regimes to rights protection and the rule of law within liberal democracies.

Emma Larking is a Visiting Fellow in the School of Regulation and Global Governance (RegNet) at the Australian National University.

Introduction Refugees and the Myth of Human Rights: Life Outside the Pale of the Law; Part I Part I; Chapter 1 Scum of the Earth I; Chapter 2 Rights and the Nation-state; Chapter 3 of of Origins. In the German version of the book the title is 'Die Aporien der Menschenrechte', or 'The Aporias of the Rights of Man' (, 756 fn. 3).; Part II Part II; Chapter 4 Natural Law and the False Promise of a Universal Community of Equals; Chapter 5 Liberalism's False Promise I: Locke; Chapter 6 Liberalism's False Promise II: Kant; Part III Part III; Chapter 7 Scum of the Earth II: Contemporary Refugees; Chapter 8 The International Human Rights Regime and the Sovereignty of States; Chapter 9 The Right to Have Rights and a New Law on Earth;