Forthcoming in the Max Planck Yearbook of United Nations Law (27) in the process of establishing the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)8 and drafting a convention on the status of refugees, which would assert the rights stemming from the formal recognition of refugeehood. Yet, as noted by the UN Secretariat in its preparatory survey on possible topics for codification, the law in this area remained both unclear and in need of systematization. 9 Although generally associated with the rule of non-extradition of political offenders, which first emerged in bilateral 10 and later multilateral11 extradition treaties during the 19th century, asylum gradually evolved into a fully-fledged yet contested international legal concept. For one, while certain countries interpreted it as simply meaning protection of nonnationals against compulsory return, others would also grant admission and even a right of residence. Similarly, and especially during and after the Second World War, asylum was also extended to individuals fleeing en masse from forms of persecution other than those based on political grounds. These developments were reflected in inter-war instruments 12 as well as in the new paradigm of refugee protection that emerged in the post-WWII world. A side effect of such expansion was the recurrent preoccupation that ‘war criminals, traitors, and Quislings’ might evade prosecution and punishment by applying for asylum. 13 UNGA Res. 428 (V), ‘Statute of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ (14 December 1950). 9 UN ILC, ‘Survey of International Law in Relation to the Work of Codification of the International Law Commission, Memorandum Submitted by the Secretary-General’ (1949) UN Doc. A/CN.4/1/Rev.1, at 50–51. 10 See Art. 5 Extradition Treaty between Belgium and France (signed 22 November 1834) 84 CTS 457. 11 See e.g., Art. 23 Montevideo Treaty on International Penal Law (adopted 23 January 1889) and Art. 2(2) ‘Convention on Extradition’ (adopted 26 December 1933, entered into force 26 December 1934) A-35 OAS Treaty Series 34. 12 Such as, inter alia, Such as, inter alia, the ‘Arrangement with respect to the issue of certificates of identity to Russian Refugees’ (5 July 1922) 355 LNTS 238, the Arrangement Relating to the Legal Status of Russian and Armenian Refugees (signed 30 June 1928, registered 2 May 1929) 89 LNTS 63; the ‘Convention Relating to the International Status of Refugees’ (adopted 28 October 1933, entered into force 13 June 1935) 159 LNTS 3663, the ‘Provisional Arrangement concerning the Status of Refugees Coming from Germany’ (adopted 4 July 1936, entered into force 4 August 1936) 3952 LNTS 77, the ‘Convention concerning the Status of Refugees Coming from Germany’ (adopted 10 February 1938, entered into force 26 October 1938) 192 LNTS 59, and the ‘Agreement of the Intergovernmental Conference on the Adoption of a Travel Document for Refugees’ (adopted 15 October 1946, entered into force 13 January 1947) Treaty Series 3/1947. 13 See UNGA Res. 8(I), ‘Question of Refugees’ (12 February 1946), at para d. 8 5 Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4816199