Associate Professor
lckawar@umich.eduOffice Information:
Residential College: 1516 East Quad, 1245
734-647-4351
Fields of Study:
law and society; migration and migrant labor; transnational social movements; social, cultural, and institutional dynamics of legal systems
Education/Degree:
Ph.D., Law and Society, New York University, 2009MSc., Social Anthropology, London School of Economics, 2000
Highlighted Work and Publications
Contesting Immigration Policy in Court: Legal Activism and Its Radiating Effects in the United States and France
Leila Kawar
What difference does law make in immigration policymaking? Since the 1970s, networks of progressive attorneys in both the U.S. and France have attempted to use litigation to assert rights for non-citizens. Yet judicial engagement - while numerically voluminous - remains doctrinally curtailed. This study offers new insights into the constitutive role of law in immigration policymaking by focusing on the legal frames, narratives, and performances forged through action in court. Challenging the conventional wisdom that "cause litigation" has little long term impact on policymaking unless...
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