ABSTRACT
In this chapter we turn our attention to the practical challenge of gathering together all the components and participants necessary to stage appeal hearings. Inspired by the social sciences’ attention to the processes of assembling, we conceive of asylum appeals as feats of bodily and material assembly – of people, of information, and of expertise – which requires significant resources for its accomplishment. We examine the difficulty of gathering evidence, for example, and reflect on different countries’ approaches to the regulation of evidence. We then consider the frequency of ‘no-shows’ during appeals, meaning the non-arrival of appellants, legal representatives for the government and legal representatives for the state, which was common in our sample countries. We relate these no-shows to a series of causes including misunderstandings and political-economic pressures and express concern at the ‘thinned out’ sort of justice they can produce. Towards the end of the chapter we also reflect on the arguments for and against ‘in-person’ hearings.
