Administrative Justice and Asylum Appeals

Robert Thomas is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Law, University of Manchester.

• 1 Administrative Justice, Quality and Asylum Adjudication Quality and Administrative Justice Asylum Adjudication Research Methods The Plan of the Book 2 Asylum Decision-Making and its Organisation The Asylum Decision Problem Organising Decision-Making The Tribunal's Jurisdiction and Organisation Conclusion 3 Costs, Accuracy and Decision Processes Considering Costs The Appeal Decision Process The Timeliness of Decision-Making Conclusion 4 Appeal Hearings The Pre-Hearing Stage Substantive Hearings Immigration Judge Questioning and the Absence of Representation Closing the Hearing and Decision-Writing Targets Conclusion 5 Credibility The Credibility Problem Assessing Credibility Hard Cases Weighing it all up Conclusion 6 Country Information The Problem of Country Information Using Country Information Country Information and the Appeals Process Country Expert Evidence Conclusion 7 Country Guidance The Country Guidance Concept Managing Country Guidance Assessing Country Information and Producing Guidance Binding Factual Precedent or Authoritative Guidance? Using Country Guidance Appraising Country Guidance Conclusion 8 Onward Rights of Challenge The Benefits and Costs of Onward Challenges Organising Onward Challenges: An Excursus The Value of Onward Challenges Tribunals, Courts and Decision-Making Quality Conclusion 9 Conclusion Evaluating Adjudicative Quality Reconsidering Asylum Adjudication

This excellent work offers both a study of the asylum appeals system in the United Kingdom and a contribution to the broader stream of scholarship on administrative justice...It successfully performs the difficult double act of providing both an engaging introduction to the system's operation and considered detail and analysis of interest to those familiar with the jurisdiction.A work immersed in the particular context of asylum appeals, Administrative Justice and Asylum Appeals attends to the detail of the design and operation of the relevant tribunal processes, evaluating them against justice and managerial criteria. As a work on tribunal adjudication, Thomas argues both for an appreciation of the limits of what adjudication can achieve and for the benefits of inserting adjudication into the administrative process of determining eligibility for asylum. He makes a compelling case on both counts.