Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

The Role of Lawyers, Judges and Country Experts in British Asylum and Immigration Law

Campbell, John

The Role of Lawyers, Judges and Country Experts in British Asylum and Immigration Law Thumbnail


Authors



Abstract

This paper examines the work of lawyers, judges and country experts involved in asylum and migration litigation. I begin by analysing their work in the wider semi-autonomous asylum field within which a number of powerful institutions operate to shape policy, define the roles of key actors and determine access to legal redress/justice by asylum applicants and migrants. To understand the work of these three legal actors, I analyse four very different types of legal cases involving asylum, foreign adoption and migration law. An analysis of these cases helps to identify the constraints on effective litigation on behalf of refugees and migrants against the British Home Office and it illustrates the fact that it is Home Office policy, and the decisions taken by Home Office officials, that created the injustice for the individuals concerned by blurring the ‘bright line’ differentiating between the rights of nationals and those of ‘foreigners’.

Citation

Campbell, J. (in press). The Role of Lawyers, Judges and Country Experts in British Asylum and Immigration Law. International Journal of Law in Context: A global forum for interdisciplinary legal studies, 16(1), 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1744552320000038

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Jan 10, 2020
Online Publication Date Mar 31, 2020
Deposit Date Apr 3, 2020
Publicly Available Date Apr 3, 2020
Print ISSN 1744-5523
Electronic ISSN 1744-5531
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 16
Issue 1
Pages 1-16
DOI https://doi.org/10.1017/S1744552320000038
Keywords lawyers, judges, country experts, United Kingdom, migration, litigation
Additional Information References : Blommaert, J. 2001. ‘Investigating narrative inequality: African asylum seekers in Belgium’, Discourse & Society 12, 4: 413-449 Bondy, V. & M. Sunkin. 2009. The Dynamics of Judicial Review Litigation. The resolution of public law challenges before final hearing. The Public Law Project: London. Bosworth, M., A. Parmar & Y. Vázquez. Eds. Race, Criminal Justice, and Migration Control: Enforcing the Boundaries of Belonging. Oxford: University Press. Bourdieu, P. 1987. ‘The Force of Law: Toward a Sociology of the Juridical Field’, The Hastings Law Journal 36: 814-853. Byrne, R. 2007. ‘Assessing testimonial evidence in asylum proceedings: Guiding standards from the International Criminal Tribunals’, International Journal of Refugee Law 19 (4): 6-9-638 Campbell, John R. 2014. Nationalism, Law and Statelessness. Grand Illusions in the Horn of Africa. Routledge: Oxford. Campbell, John R. 2016. ‘Asylum v sovereignty in the 21st century: How nation-state’s breach international law to block access to asylum’, International Journal of Migration and Border Studies 2, 1, 24-39 Campbell, John R. 2017. Bureaucracy, Law and Dystopia in the United Kingdom’s Asylum System. Routledge: Oxford. Campbell, John R. 2020. ‘‘Examining Procedural Unfairness and Credibility Findings in the UK Asylum System’, Refugee Survey Quarterly 39, 1: 56-75 Clayton, G. & G. Firth. 2018. Immigration and Asylum Law. Oxford: University Press. Conley, J., & W. W. M. O’Barr. Just Words: Law, Language and Power. Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press. Consterdine, E. 2013. One Step Forward, Two Steps Back. Evaluating the Institutions of British Immigration Policymaking. Institute for Public Policy Research. Briefing. April Crawley, H. 2010. “No one gives you a chance to say what you are thinking’: finding space for children’s agency in the UK asylum system”, Area 42, 2: 162-169 Dauvergne, C. 2004. ‘Sovereignty, Migration and the Rule of Law in Global Times’, The Modern Law Review 67, 4: 588-615 Duvell, F. & B. Jordan. 2003. ‘Immigration Control and the management of economic migration in the United Kingdom: organization culture, implementation, enforcement and identity processes in public services’, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 29, 2: 299-336 Englke, M.2008, ‘The objects of evidence’, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (N.S.) S1-21. Ethiopia. 1999. The Revised Family Code. Federal Negarit Gazetta Ordinary Issue no. 1/2000. Code Proclamation no. 213/2000 (4 July 2000). At: http://www.refworld.org/docid/4c0ccc052.html. Galanter, M. 1974. ‘Why The "Haves" Come out Ahead: Speculations on the Limits of Legal Change’, Law & Society Review 9: 95-160 Geddes, A. 2003. The Politics of Migration and Immigration in Europe. Sage: New York. Gibb, R. & A. Good. 2014. ‘Interpretation, translation and intercultural communication in refugee status determination procedures in the UK and France’, Language and Cultural Communication 14 (3): 385-399 Good, A. 2004.‘”Undoubtedly an Expert’: Anthropologists in British Asylum Courts’, J. Royal Anthropological Institute 10: 113-133 _______. 2007. Anthropology and Expertise in the Asylum Courts. Routledge: Oxford. _____. 2008. ‘Cultural evidence in courts of law’, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (N.S.) S47-60. Goodwin, C. 1994. “Professional vision”, American Anthropologist 96, 3, 606-33 Hoehne, M. 2016. ‘The strategic use of epistemological positions in a power-laden arena: anthropological expertise in asylum cases in the UK’, International Journal of Law in Context 12, 3: 293-237 Holden, L. 2009. ‘Beyond anthropological expert witnessing: Toward an integrated definition of anthropological expertise’, in L. Holden (ed). Cultural Expertise and Socio-Legal Studies, special issue in Studies in Law: Politics and Society, 1-22. Home Affairs Select Committee. 2018. Home Office needs major reform to avoid Windrush scandal repeat. London. At: https://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/home-affairs-committee/news-parliament-2017/the-windrush-generation-report-published-17-19/ Jacquement, J. 2009. ‘Transcribing refugees: the entextualization of asylum seekers’ hearings in a transidiomatic environment’, Text & Talk 29: 5, 525-546 James, D. & I. Killick. 2012. ‘Empathy and Expertise: Caseworkers and immigration/asylum applicants in London’, Law & Social Inquiry 37: 430-454 JCWI (Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants). 2018. Response to Home Office Windrush Review Call for Evidence. London. Jones, C. A. G. 1994. Expert Witnesses. Science, Medicine and the Practice of Law. Clarendon Press: Oxford. Kobelinsky, C. 2018. ‘The ‘Inner Belief’ of French Asylum Judges’, in N. Gill & A. Good. Eds. Asylum Determination in Europe. Ethnographic Perspectives, 53-68, Palgrave: Macmillan. Latour, B. 2010. The Making of Law. An Ethnography of the Conseil D’Etat. Polity: Cambridge. Mather, L. & B. Yngvesson. 1980/81. ‘Language, audience and the transformation of disputes’, Law & Society Review 15, 3-4, 775-821 Moore, S. F. 1972/73. ‘Law and social change: The semi-autonomous social field as an appropriate subject of study’, Law & Society Review 7: 719-746 Nader, L. 2001/2. ‘The Life of the Law – A Moving Story’, Valparaiso University Law Review 36: 655-674 National Audit Office. 2018. Handling of the Windrush Situation. London. At: https://www.nao.org.uk/report/handling-of-the-windrush-situation/ Peiris, G. 1987. ‘Wednesday unreasonableness: The Expanding Canvas’, Cambridge Law Journal 46, 1: 53-82 Riles, A. 2006. ‘Anthropology, Human Rights, and Legal Knowledge: Culture in the Iron Cate’, American Anthropologist 108, 1: 52-65 Rostain, T. 2004. ‘Professional Power: Lawyers and the Constitution of Professional Authority’, in A. Sarat. Ed. The Blackwell Companion to Law & Society, 146-169, Blackwell: Oxford. Sawyer, C. & P, Turpin. 2005. ‘Neither here nor there: Temporary admission to the UK’, International Journal of Refugee Law 17; 688-728 Sorgoni, B. 2019. ‘The location of truth: Bodies and Voices in the Italian Asylum Procedure’, PoLAR (May). Pp. 161-176 Tomkinson, S. 2015. ‘Doing Fieldwork on State Organizations in Democratic Settings: Ethical Issues of Research in Refugee Decision Making’, FQS Forum: Qualitative Social Research 16 (1), Art. 6 Vervliet, M., M, C. Rousseau & I. Derluyn. 2005. ‘Multi-layered Ethics in Research Involving Unaccompanied Refugee Minors, Journal of Refugee Studies 28 (4), 2015, 468-485 Vetters, L. & M-C Foblets. 2916. ‘Culture all around? Contextualizing anthropological expertise in European courtroom settings’, International Journal of Law in Context 12, 3: 272-292 White, R. 2019. ‘The nationality and immigration status of the "Windrush Generation" and the perils of lawful presence in a "hostile environment"’, Journal of Immigration and Nationality Law, 33(3), 218-239

Files

The role of lawyers, judges and country experts.pdf (403 Kb)
PDF

Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2020. This is the accepted manuscript of an article published by Cambridge University Press in
International Journal of Law in Context, available online: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1744552320000038





You might also like



Downloadable Citations