Grasping Legal Time
Temporality and European Migration Law

This book explores the double-edged role of time in the regulation of migration from legal, philosophical and socio-cultural perspectives.

Martijn Stronks (Author)

9781009484046, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 23 January 2025

128 pages
24.3 x 16.8 x 0.7 cm, 0.23 kg

'… sophisticated and charming … Stronks' book serves as a robust example of transforming abstract ideas into relevant literature by applying them to concrete real-world legal and policy issues. “Grasping Legal Time” is of particular interest to scholars and policy leaders involved in migration issues. It offers a nuanced exploration of how time shapes the legal inclusion and exclusion of migrants.' Tamar de Waal, Common Market Law Review

Time is one of the most important means for the exercise of power. In Migration Law, it is used for disciplining and controlling the presence of migrants within a certain territory through the intricate interplay of two overlapping but contradicting understandings of time – human and clock time. This book explores both the success and limitations of the usage of time for the governance of migration. The virtues of legal time can be seen at work in several temporal differentiations in migration law: differentiation based on temporality, deadlines, qualification of time and procedural differentiation. Martijn Stronks contests that, hidden in the usage of legal time in Migration Law, there is an argument for the inclusion of migrants on the basis of their right to human time. This assertion is based in the finite, irreversible and unstoppable character of human time.

Introduction: Grasping Legal Time
1. The Virtues of Legal Time
2. The Vices of Legal Time
3. Jus Temporis or the Immigrant's Right to Human Time
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Laws of Specific jurisdictions [LN]