Anthropology And Expertise In The Asylum Courts

Although asylum has generated unparalleled levels of public and politicalconcern over the past decade there has been astonishingly little fieldresearch on the t... » 

Although asylum has generated unparalleled levels of public and politicalconcern over the past decade there has been astonishingly little fieldresearch on the topic. This is a study of the legal process of claiming asylumfrom an anthropological perspective focusing on the role of expert evidencefrom country experts such as anthropologists. It describes how such evidenceis used in assessments of asylum claims by the Home Office and by adjudicatorsand tribunals hearing asylum appeals. It compares uses of social scientific andmedical evidence in legal decisionmaking and analyzes anthropologically thelegal uses of key concepts from the 1951 Refugee Convention such as racereligion and social group. The evidence is drawn from field observation ofmore than 300 appeal hearings in London and Glasgow from reported case law andfrom interviews with immigration adjudicators tribunal chairs barristers andsolicitors as well as expert witnesses. «