Lady Hale: Rights, and Righting Wrongs, In Immigration and Nationality

This chapter argues that Lady Hale makes a distinct contribution to the area of immigration and nationality law. She brings in the life situations and experiences of vulnerable people into her judgments through a relational approach to individual autonomy and rights. She challenges the individualism of rights by exposing the institutional and societal risks that people, particularly women and children, face owing to their specific vulnerabilities within the immigration and nationality sphere. When distinctions are made on account of nationality or immigration status, Lady Hale seeks underlying reasons for the differential treatment. An associational lens which seeks real connections between foreign nationals and British citizens and/or belonging as connected to long term residence is prominent in her cases. Through a relational approach to autonomy, she demonstrates that there are factors beyond formal immigration and nationality status which affect human beings who, because of being part of particular social groups, face specific kinds of oppression. Such an approach counters some of the legacy of empire and complexities of the immigration and nationality legal sphere in the UK and serves goals of substantive justice.