"For a work exhibiting high technical craftsmanship and of high utility to practicing lawyers and scholars." Thus read the citation in Jim Hathaway's book "The Rights of Refugees under International Law," which bagged the American Society of International Law (ASIL) 2007 book award.

Hathaway is an authority on international refugee law and professor at the University of Michigan. His book, published by Cambridge University Press in 2005, is the first comprehensive analysis of refugees’ human rights set by the UN Refugee Convention. It addresses the challenges of protecting crucial global human rights norms. Hathaway’s works are often referred to by many high courts.

The 2007 ASIL awards were also rewarded to Oren Gross and Fionnuala Ni Aolain for their book “Law in Times of Crisis: Emergency Powers in Theory and Practice,” and to William A. Schabas for his book, “The UN International Criminal Tribunals: The Former Yugoslavia, Rwanda and Sierra Leone.”

Author to more than 60 journal articles and several outstanding international law books, Hathaway is a senior visiting research associate at the Oxford University's Refugee Studies Programme. He is also the president of the Cuenca Colloquium on International Refugee Law. The founding director of the University of Michigan's Program in Refugee and Asylum Law, Hathaway also provides training on refugee law to academic, non-governmental, and official audiences all over the world.

Elizabeth Anderson, ASIL Executive Director, recommended the books to students and professionals. She asserted that the “ideas in [these] exceptional works make significant contribution to the field.” A nonprofit, nonpartisan, educational membership organization, ASIL is chartered by the U.S. Congress in 1950. It aims to promote the study of international law and encourage the maintenance and sustainability of global relations.

An authority on international refugee law, and professor at the University of
Michigan, Hathaway’s works are often referred to by the most senior courts of the common law world.