Unit information: British Immigration, Nationality, and Citizenship Law in 2018/19

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:

1. Foundational Principles of British Immigration Law (including relevant EU law)
2. Entry to the UK and various immigration statuses
3. Legal difference between citizenship and other kinds of leave to remain and rights of residence
4. Law relating to loss of citizenship (cancellation for fraud or subsequent conduct)
5. 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 tutorials. Lectures will provide the basic structure around the assigned reading while tutorials 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

Assessment Information

1 formative assessment: 1 x 1,000 word coursework. Formative assessments do not count towards final mark and can be optional.

2 x summative assessments: 2 x 2,000 word coursework. Summative assessments do count towards final mark.

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

Reading and References

Gina Clayton, Immigration and Asylum Law, OUP: Oxford, 5th edn, 2010.

Margaret Phelan, James Gillespie, Immigration Law Handbook, 9th edn, OUP: Oxford, 2015.

Spencer, Ian RG. British Immigration Policy Since 1939: The Making of Multi-Racial Britain. Routledge, 2002.

Heath, Anthony F., and James R. Tilley. "British national identity and attitudes towards immigration." International Journal on Multicultural Societies 7.2 (2005): 119-132.

Parekh, Bhikhu. "Being British." Government and Opposition 37.3 (2002): 301-315.