Justifying Resistance to Immigration Law: The Case of Mere Noncompliance

Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence 2 (31):459-481 (2018)
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Abstract

Constitutional democracies unilaterally enact the laws that regulate immigration to their territories. When are would-be migrants to a constitutional democracy morally justified in breaching such laws? Receiving states also typically enact laws that require their existing citizens to participate in the implementation of immigration restrictions. When are the individual citizens of a constitutional democracy morally justified in breaching such laws? In this article, I take up these questions concerning the justifiability of noncompliance with immigration law, focusing on the case of nonviolent – or mere – noncompliance. Dissenting from Javier Hidalgo’s view, I argue that the injustice of an immigration law is insufficient to make mere noncompliance justified. Instead, I contend that only if an immigration law lacks legitimate authority are individuals justified in breaching it, since the subjects of an institution with legitimate authority are under a content-independent moral duty to comply with its rules. I further argue that a constitutional democracy’s regimes of law regulating immigration and requiring its citizens’ participation in implementing these regulations have legitimate authority. Nevertheless, when a particular immigration law is egregiously unjust, its legitimacy is defeated.

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original Yong, Caleb (2018) "Justifying Resistance to Immigration Law: The Case of Mere Noncompliance". Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence 31(2):459-481

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Caleb Yong
Yale University

Citations of this work

The ethics of resisting immigration law.Javier Hidalgo - 2019 - Philosophy Compass 14 (12):e12639.
The Ethics of Resisting Deportation.Rutger Birnie - 2019 - Proceedings of the 2018 ZiF Workshop “Studying Migration Policies at the Interface Between Empirical Research and Normative Analysis”.
Sanctuary as democratic non-cooperation.Patti Tamara Lenard - 2022 - Politics, Philosophy and Economics 21 (3):291-312.
Sanctuary as democratic non-cooperation.Patti Tamara Lenard - 2022 - Sage Publications: Politics, Philosophy and Economics 21 (3):291-312.

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References found in this work

Immigration as a human right.Kieran Oberman - 2016 - In Sarah Fine & Lea Ypi (eds.), Migration in Political Theory: The Ethics of Movement and Membership. Oxford University Press UK. pp. 32-56.
Kant, liberal legacies, and foreign affairs.Michael W. Doyle - 1983 - Philosophy and Public Affairs 12 (3):205-235.
Resistance to Unjust Immigration Restrictions.Javier Hidalgo - 2015 - Journal of Political Philosophy 23 (4):450-470.
Immigration and self-determination.Bas van der Vossen - 2015 - Politics, Philosophy and Economics 14 (3):270-290.
The Duty to Disobey Immigration Law.Javier Hidalgo - 2016 - Moral Philosophy and Politics 3 (2).

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