Overview
Dr Nikolas Feith Tan is an award-winning expert in the field of international refugee law.
He is Senior Lecturer at Melbourne Law School. Previously, he was Senior Researcher at the Danish Institute for Human Rights in Copenhagen and Senior Protection Officer at UNHCR. He is currently a member of the Administrative Review Tribunal where he is a decision-maker in protection visa appeals matters.
Nikolas’ work on externalisation, temporary protection and cessation, asylum procedures and systems and community sponsorship of refugees is widely cited and routinely published in leading international journals. Nikolas' monograph, Transnational Asylum, presents the original framework of transnational asylum to inform future cooperation between states on asylum processing and refugee protection. Transnational Asylum was awarded the 2026 Australia and New Zealand Society of International Law (ANZSIL) Book Prize.
Nikolas is a member of the board of the International Journal of Refugee Law. He is also Visiting Professor at the MOBILE Centre, University of Copenhagen and Senior Research Affiliate at the University of London's Refugee Law Initiative where he co-convenes the Declaration on International Protection. Nikolas is also an affiliate with the Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law at the University of New South Wales.
Teaching (2026)
The Melbourne JD