On the Right of Exclusion: Law, Ethics and Immigration Policy

On the Right of Exclusion: Law, Ethics and Immigration Policy addresses the current immigration laws and practices of Western states, and argues that if states cannot substantially justify the exclusion of an alien, the latter should be admitted. When states deny aliens admission to their territory, they do not substantially justify the exclusion vis-à-vis the excluded alien. Bas Schotel challenges this state of affairs and calls for a reversal of the default position in admission laws. The justification should, he argues, involve a serious accounting for the interests and reasons applicable to the alien seeking admission. Which is to say that the burden of proof should lie with the state. To build this argument, the book makes three types of argument: legal, ethical and institutional. The legal argument shows that there are no grounds in either sovereignty or the structure of law for current admission practices. Whilst this legal argument makes a claim about what the state cannot do, the ethical argument shows what the state ought to do: and there are strong ethical reasons why the exclusion of aliens is something that should be justified. Finally, the institutional argument explores how this new position might be implemented. An original, yet practical, undermining of the logic that underlies current immigration laws, On the Right of Exclusion: Law, Ethics and Immigration Policy will be essential reading for those with intellectual, political and policy interests in this area.