This thesis deals with “country of origin information” (COI), a specific type of expert knowledge and a field of professional practices that has emerged since the late 1980’s in the framework of West European and North American asylum administrations in order to support refugee status determination. This information is used to evaluate the credibility of asylum seekers and to assess their eligibility to international protection.
Rather than focusing on this instrumental role COI in asylum procedures, this research explores the norms and values that govern the works of COI units in several European asylum administrations. It also delineates the relationships between the notions of authority and legitimacy when referring to knowledge, individual actors, and state institutions. The format of the thesis is a PhD by published work comprising three article.