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The role of lawyers, judges, country experts and officials in British asylum and immigration law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 March 2020

John R. Campbell Open the ORCID record for John R. Campbell [Opens in a new window]
John R. Campbell*
Affiliation:
Doctor and Emeritus Reader in the Anthropology of Africa and Law, School of Oriental & African Studies, London
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]
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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’.

Keywords

lawyersjudgescountry expertsUnited Kingdommigrationlitigation
Type
Article
Information
International Journal of Law in Context , Volume 16 , Issue 1 , March 2020 , pp. 1 - 16
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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