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*.

Date01 September 2017
DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1111/lasr.12289
Published date01 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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