Immigration Detention: Law, History, Politics
Cambridge University Press, 10/27/2011
EAN 9781107005761, ISBN10: 1107005760
Hardcover, 422 pages, 22.9 x 15.4 x 2.6 cm
Language: English
The liberal legal ideal of protection of the individual against administrative detention without trial is embodied in the habeas corpus tradition. However, the use of detention to control immigration has gone from a wartime exception to normal practice, thus calling into question modern states' adherence to the rule of law. Daniel Wilsher traces how modern states have come to use long-term detention of immigrants without judicial control. He examines the wider emerging international human rights challenge presented by detention based upon protecting 'national sovereignty' in an age of global migration. He explores the vulnerable political status of immigrants and shows how attempts to close liberal societies can create 'unwanted persons' who are denied fundamental rights. To conclude, he proposes a set of standards to ensure that efforts to control migration, including the use of detention, conform to principles of law and uphold basic rights regardless of immigration status.
1. The emergence of detention
from free movement to regulated borders in the common law world
2. Modern immigration detention
the growth of the bureaucratic enterprise in United States, United Kingdom, Australia and France
3. International law and immigration detention
between territorial sovereignty and emerging human rights norms
4. Immigration detention and the European Union
the supra-national dimension and the demise of territorial sovereignty?
5. Immigration detention as a tool of public and national security
the problem of internment in modern times
6. Global migration and the politics of immigration detention
7. Drawing boundaries around detention
finding a principled and practical approach.
Advance praise: 'This book constitutes a very important contribution to the human rights debate by refusing to disregard the rights of others and holding up a mirror to our legal and political world to reveal the hypocrisy which is inherent in the detention of foreigners.' Professor Guild, Kingsley Napley LLP