Immigration Detention: Law, History, Politics

As its title suggests, Daniel Wilsher’s book tackles the contentious and complicated issue of immigration detention from a historical, political and legal perspective. First of all, from the historical perspective, the first chapter examines the development of immigration detention in the UK and USA up until the early 20th century, focussing on the questions of constitutional principle (the extent of state power to detain persons outside the scope of the criminal process, and the reviewability of state discretion). The second chapter then takes the historical survey up to the present day, adding analysis of the law in two additional countries (Australia and France). The third chapter then assesses the crucial interaction between national law on immigration detention and international human rights norms, examining the CSR51 and related soft law, the ECHR50 and the ICCPR66. It concludes that the liberal rules promulgated by international organs have had little impact on state...