Whereas asylum policy is predicated on the assumption that states define refugees, this paper examines how refugees define states. Through the legal case of refugees stranded on a British military base in Cyprus since 1998, I show how refugees and the states that grant them or deny them protection become co-constitutive. The processes involved in judicial activism delineate the modalities through which sovereign governance and refugee agencies operate. I argue that modalities of sovereignty (colonialism, exceptionalism, and diplomacy) interact with modalities of agency (protest, vulnerability, and endurance) to redefine issues of refugee protection, state sovereignty, and externalization of migration management. The case shows the risks that denial of protection entails for states and not just refugees. Methodologically, I propose that a nuanced, ground-level understanding of the role of law in activism allows us a clearer view to these imbrications of sovereign governance and agency, and thus to the ambivalent and multivalent aspects of activism.

中文翻译：

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公约的精神和殖民地的文字：难民在英国海外领土上定义国家

尽管庇护政策是建立在国家定义难民的假设之上的，但本文探讨了难民如何定义国家。通过自 1998 年以来滞留在塞浦路斯英国军事基地的难民的法律案例，我展示了难民和给予他们或拒绝他们保护的国家如何成为共同构成的。司法行动主义所涉及的进程界定了主权治理和难民机构运作的模式。我认为，主权模式（殖民主义、例外主义和外交）与机构模式（抗议、脆弱性和忍受）相互作用，重新定义难民保护、国家主权和移民管理外部化的问题。该案显示了拒绝保护给各国（而不仅仅是难民）带来的风险。从方法论上讲，我建议对法律在行动主义中的作用进行细致入微的、基础性的理解，使我们能够更清楚地了解主权治理和机构的这些相互交织的关系，从而了解行动主义的矛盾和多重方面。