ABSTRACT
In this chapter I seek to understand how individuals experience the process of seeking asylum in the UK, an issue that raises questions about the quality of justice at play in the asylum system. In this regard, Rawls’ notion of ‘justice as fairness’ seems applicable. For Rawls, justice comes into play where ‘each person has an equal right to a fully adequate scheme of equal basic rights and liberties’ (1985: 227). He was concerned to set out a possible system of justice for citizens living in a modern democracy, whereas I am concerned with the system of justice that a democracy extends to foreigners. A different way of stating the problem would be to say that before the law, everyone is accorded the same rights, that legal decisions are based on ‘due reflection’ on a case, and that legal procedures are fair and transparent (i.e. the emphasis is on ‘procedural justice’; Fabienne 2009).
