This introduction maps the broader political and legal architecture underlying what the media has dubbed the migrant or refugee crisis in the Middle East. Beyond tropes proclaiming the loss or weakening of sovereignty, the collapse of European humanitarian reason, or yet another failure by the United Nations or the international human rights system, the refugee crisis has exposed the statist bias at play in political and legal responses to the crisis. This introduction is an attempt to define sovereign reason—the very principle that governs the humanitarian response to the refugee crisis. Be it the normative frameworks deployed or the policy responses implemented, everything contributes to the (re)production of state bias in international law. Ultimately, it will be a matter of assessing the extent to which such law helps protect migrants or, on the contrary, further jeopardizes their status and situation.