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"Both the internationally agreed definition of refugee status and the unique catalog of rights to which refugees are entitled are routinely invoked by millions of persons in search of protection. Advocates, officials, judges and others charged with applying the standards set by the UN{u2019}s Convention relating to the Status of Refugees ("Refugee Convention") must give meaning to often ambiguous but unquestionably important norms, knowing that an error can literally have life and death consequences. Yet despite its routine invocation and critical importance, refugee law sadly stands alone as the only body of international human rights law that lacks an independent and authoritative supervisory body. ... [T]he University of Michigan{u2019}s Program in Refugee Law was established 20 years ago with a commitment to furthering a truly transnational approach to international refugee law. ... [W]e established the Colloquium on Challenges in International Refugee Law and produced the first Michigan Guidelines on the International Protection of Refugees in 1999. Each of the eight sets of Guidelines reproduced in this volume has resulted from a uniquely rigorous process in which in-house faculty and external experts worked with senior Michigan Law School students to design and implement a research program relating to a single, cutting-edge and difficult issue of refugee law. ... [An] 18-month collaborative research enterprise ... has informed each Colloquium debate."--Preface.