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Hollow law and utilitarian law: The devaluing of deportation hearings in New York City and Paris

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Lili Dao*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, New York University, New York, New York, USA
*
Lili Dao, Department of Sociology, New York University, 295 Lafayette Street, 4th Floor, New York, NY, USA. Email: lili.dao@nyu.edu

Abstract

How is law made worthless to the marginalized? Drawing on ethnographic observations in Paris and New York City, I establish a typology of devaluation practices in deportation hearings. I analyze how informal court practices devalue court actors, the hearing, and the law itself. Despite different levels of formal protections for migrants, deportation adjudication is pared down and devalued in both cities. This devaluation, however, followed distinct logics. New York hearings were characterized by a utilitarian law logic, where process and ritualistic elements deemed inessential were shed, leaving a stripped-down core focused on case processing. The minimal protections available to migrants were weakened further. By contrast, hollow law emerged in Parisian hearings, where everyday court practices eroded the more generous protections granted to migrants through formal law. While analyses of immigration adjudication have focused on decision-making, determinants of legal outcomes, and the interpretation of formal criteria, I instead conceptualize the courtroom as a space where value is actively unmade through informal practices, drawing on insights from the sociology of valuation and evaluation.

Type
Article
Copyright
Copyright © 2023 Law and Society Association.

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Footnotes

How to cite this article: Dao, Lili. 2023. “Hollow Law and Utilitarian Law: The Devaluing of Deportation Hearings in New York City and Paris.” Law & Society Review 57(3): 317–339. https://doi.org/10.1111/lasr.12665

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