Skip to main content

Unit information: British Immigration, Nationality, and Citizenship Law in 2020/21

Please note: you are viewing unit and programme information for a past academic year. Please see the current academic year for up to date information.

Unit name British Immigration, Nationality, and Citizenship Law
Unit code LAWD20045
Credit points 20
Level of study I/5
Teaching block(s) Teaching Block 4 (weeks 1-24)
Unit director Professor. Prabhat
Open unit status Not open
Pre-requisites

LAWD10013 Constitutional Rights

Co-requisites

None.

School/department University of Bristol Law School
Faculty Faculty of Social Sciences and Law

Description including Unit Aims

This unit will engage students in a detailed and critical examination of immigration controls and in doing so will interrogate the protections available to immigrants in the context of the relevant legislation and policies in the UK. This approach of combining law and policy from a critical, contemporary socio-legal approach will develop critical analysis skills of students with regard to contemporary research-informed questions, such as the justification of detention and deportation and the legitimacy of immigration controls more generally in a wider political, economic and theoretical context

Through involvement in the unit, students will be able to understand and analyse the evolution of the national immigration law system and explain the rationales underlying the legal responses to migration.

At the end of this unit students will be familiar with the following topics:

  • Principles of British Immigration Law (including relevant EU law);
  • Entry to the UK and various immigration statuses;
  • Legal difference between citizenship and other kinds of leave to remain and rights of residence;
  • A range of different approaches to Immigration, British citizenship and nationality in the historical and current contexts of British immigration laws and relevant EU and ECHR laws.

Learning will be structured around lectures and seminars. Lectures will provide the basic structure around the assigned reading while seminars will develop the ideas and generate critical thinking on the issues.

Intended Learning Outcomes

By the end of this unit a successful student will be able to:

  • Explain relevant black letter provisions from British immigration laws for nationality, citizenship and other settled status and processes;
  • Develop their own critical approaches to an assigned case study by applying the black letter law to the case study;
  • Cite the key laws, principles, justifications and standards of protection found in immigration law;
  • Demonstrate an understanding of the contemporary socio-legal context of immigration restrictions;
  • Critique immigration controls more generally in a wider political, economic and theoretical context.

Teaching Information

Teaching will be delivered through a variety of asynchronous and synchronous activities

Assessment Information

1 x summative assessment: coursework with a specified word count (100%)

The assessment will assess all of the intended learning outcomes for this unit.

Reading and References

There are no compulsory core texts for this unit. Specific reading lists will be assigned per seminar.

Here is a list of Other Resources for students:

Books

  • Gina Clayton, Immigration and Asylum Law, OUP: Oxford, 7th edn, 2016;
  • Spencer, Ian RG. British Immigration Policy since 1939: The Making of Multi-Racial Britain. Routledge, 2002;
  • Margaret Phelan, James Gillespie, Immigration Law Handbook, 9th edn, OUP: Oxford, 2015;
  • Fransman's British Nationality Law, 2011, Bloomsbury;
  • Andrew Nicol and Ann Dummet. "Subjects, Citizens, Aliens and Others: Nationality and Immigration Law." (1990), Law in Context, Weidenfeld Paperbacks;
  • Statement of Changes in the Immigration Rules HMSO;
  • Macdonald I., Immigration Law and Practice - 5th edition Butterworths
  • JCWI, Immigration and Nationality Law Handbook 2002/2003 edition;
  • Butterworths Immigration Law Handbook, 2002 edition;
  • Webb and Grant, Immigration and Asylum emergency procedures.

Journals

  • Legal Action Group Magazine;
  • Immigration Appeals reports;
  • Tolleys - Immigration and Nationality - Law and Practice.

Websites

Feedback