The Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees 1951 and its 1967 Protocol have focused on individual applications for refugee status where there is an established judicial or administrative process in place to make individual determinations. Most displaced persons in the world do not fall within that model. They are part of a mass displacement that may or may not cross an international border with important consequences for the legal framework of protection. This course will look at the protection offered by international law to those displaced at time of acute crisis.