Governing Refugees : Justice, Order and Legal Pluralism

Refugee camps are imbued in the public imagination with assumptions of anarchy, danger and refugee passivity. Governing Refugees: Justice, Order and Legal Pluralism challenges such assumptions, arguing that refugee camps should be recognized as spaces where social capital can not only survive, but thrive.

This book examines camp management and the administration of justice in refugee camps on the Thailand-Burma border. Emphasising the work of refugees themselves in coping with and adapting to encampment, it considers themes of agency, sovereignty and legal pluralism in an analysis of local governance and the production of order beyond the state.

Governing Refugees will appeal to anyone with relevant interests in law, anthropology and criminology, as well as those working in the area of refugee studies.

Governing Refugees examines the themes of community governance, order maintenance and legal pluralism in the context of refugee camps. Focusing specifically on the refugee camps along the Thai-Burma border, this book sheds light on the reality of life in a refugee camp, through exploring the historical evolution and practice of dispute resolution, and examining the ways in which this ‘traditional’ practice is altered by the influence of new norms encountered during encampment – particularly international human rights law and the law of the host state. Refugee camps are imbued in the public imagination with assumptions of anarchy, danger and refugee passivity. Governing Refugees marshalls empirical data and ethnographic detail to challenge such assumptions, arguing that refugee camps should be recognised as spaces where social capital can not only survive, but thrive.