Sonia E. Rolland, Development at the WTO, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012, 361 pp, £70.00 hb.
| Published date | 01 May 2013 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2230.12028_2 |
| Author | David Collins |
| Date | 01 May 2013 |
there any legal limits on what ‘we’ can do to ‘them’? There must be, but if we
allow this, the neat solution to the tension between immigration control and
rights, simply denying that the unauthorised have rights, grows more compli-
cated. A key aspect of Wilsher’s position, well supported by earlier discussion in
the book, is that our objective in border control should be ‘reasonable compli-
ance’ rather than perfect compliance (338). The latter objective is simply short-
hand for border control eclipsing all competing values.
He makes a good case for various mechanisms being necessary components
of a humane, limited, and well-functioning use of immigration detention. The
proposals bear the marks of practical experience. He argues for a prohibition on
mandatory detention, individualised determinations of flight risk (with better
empirical evidence required on the factors going to flight risk), automatic judicial
review (within two weeks for unauthorised entrants, within 48 hours for depor-
tation in revocation proceedings), use of a proportionality standard, absolute time
limits on the use of immigration detention (he suggests six months), and greater
use of alternatives to detention. These elements are presented as a framework,
with the details best supplied by the legislature and executive.
He makes clear that we are in the midst of an unprecedented expansion of the
use of immigration detention in peacetime, an expansion that began in the 1980s
and gathered pace in the 1990s. The Protecting Canada’s Immigration System
Act, which received Royal Assent in late June 2012, and the Immigration
Amendment Bill (16-2) currently before the New Zealand Parliament evidence
the continued spread of mandatory immigration detention.
The book is a well-supported argument for the need for clear jurisprudential
limits on immigration detention, to protect against, and reorient, a practice
driven by the politics of appearing tough on unauthorised migration. It is a
compelling narrative of how history, politics and law have resulted in the present
unprecedented use of immigration detention, and the fertile ground they
provide for alternatives.
Rayner Thwaites*
Sonia E. Rolland,Development at the WTO, Oxford: Oxford University Press,
2012, 361 pp, £70.00 hb.
The treatment of economically weaker member countries of the World Trade
Organisation (WTO) has been the source of much academic commentary as
well as one of the primary focal points of the Doha ‘Development Round’ of
WTO trade negotiations. Sonia Rolland’s new book is an exhaustive discussion
of this highly controversial aspect of WTO law, providing a thorough, critical
and creative exploration of the way in which developing countries have been
and could be accommodated by the WTO multilateral trade regime. Rolland’s
*Law Faculty, Victoria University of Wellington.
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© 2013 The Authors. The Modern Law Review © 2013 The Modern Law Review Limited. 643
(2013) 76(3) MLR 639–648
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