Devyani Prabhat – författare

Basic freedoms cannot be abandoned in times of conflict, or can they? Are basic freedoms routinely forsaken during times when there are national security concerns? These questions present different conundrums for the legal profession, which generally values basic freedoms but is also part of the architecture of emergency legal frameworks.

Unleashing the Force of Law uses multi-jurisdiction empirical data and draws on cause lawyering, political lawyering and Bourdieusian juridical field literature to analyze the invocation of legal norms aimed at the protection of basic freedoms in times of national security tensions. It asks three main questions about the protection of basic freedoms. First, when do lawyers mobilize for the protection of basic freedoms? Second, in what kind of mobilization do they engage? Third, how do the strategies they adopt relate to the outcomes they achieve?

Covering the last five decades, the book focusses on the 1980s and the Noughties through an analysis of legal work for two groups of independence seekers in the 1980s, namely, Republican (mostly Catholic) separatists in Northern Ireland and Puerto Rican separatists in the US, and on post-9/11 issues concerning basic freedoms in both countries

Available Open Access under CC-BY-NC licence.

Long term resident migrants to the UK, who often possess valuable skills for the economy, still face significant barriers to citizenship. In this important book, Dr Prabhat captures the experiences of those who successfully become British citizens through stories of belonging, citizenship and the law; beautifully illustrated by artist Sam Church. Speaking to contemporary times of Brexit, the book exposes the challenges which become insurmountable for many migrants, and illuminates the gap between policy and practice in gaining British citizenship.

Incorporating data from a broad range of scholarship and empirical sources, the authors outline linkages between counter-terrorism knowledge, policy, and practice, as well as child rights and counter-terrorism law. They argue that to foster the growth and development of children it is imperative to remove all stains of criminality and support their repatriation. Exploring issues of nationality rights and statelessness, the chapters examine the cancellation of citizenship as a strategy of preventative counter-terrorism, while dissecting relevant cases across Asia, Australia, Europe and North America.

This cutting-edge book is essential for academics in human rights, terrorism and security law, humanitarian law, public law, international child law, family law, and migration and citizenship. Its comparative and international coverage of child rights and counter-terror measures will also benefit national security and human rights practitioners.