Contesting Immigration Policy in Court. Legal Activism and Its Radiating Effects in the United States and France. By Leila Kawar. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2015*.

• Date: 01 September 2017
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/lasr.12289
• Published date: 01 September 2017

take a first step in what might prove to be a whole new way of think-

ing about policing, power and authority.

Reference

Chakrabarty, D. (2000) Provincializing Europe: Postcolonial Thought and Historical Difference.

Princeton:Princeton Univ. Press.

***

Contesting Immigration Policy in Court. Legal Activism and Its

Radiating Effects in the United States and France. By Leila

Kawar. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2015*.

Reviewed by Stephen Meili, University of Minnesota Law School

Leila Kawar has published a thoughtful, well-researched and at

times provocative comparison of immigration-related litigation in

France and the United States. She analyzes the radiating effects of

such litigation on immigration policy in both countries, and thus

critiques the litigation efforts of lawyers who try to shape such pol-

icy. Such an approach is particularly welcome now, as executive

orders and other policy pronouncements limiting immigrant and

refugee rights in the United States, as well as the resurgence of

nationalist sentiment in numerous countries, will likely lead to an

increase in immigration-related litigation and other forms of legal

advocacy for the foreseeable future.

Lawyers and other immigration advocates typically—and out of

necessity—focus exclusively on the here and now, and on the coun-

try in which they operate. Kawar’s book places their work in histori-

cal and comparative perspective, and in doing so sheds light on the

question of how we got here. It will help lawyers, as well as socio-

legal scholars, understand why the everyday battles over immigra-

tion policy are often about seemingly trivial details related to one’s

immigration status. This might provide some comfort, or at least an

explanation, to those cause lawyers who pursue immigration advo-

cacy because they want to help bring about significant social change

and feel frustrated by the minutia of much immigration law practice.

Kawar’s book covers a range of important issues, including the

interaction between rights-based litigation and social movements,

*Joint winner of the Herbert Jacob Book Prize by the Law and Society Association

2016

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