Legal Responses to Mass Migration : From the Nineteenth Century to World War II

This volume explores the legal history of migration and the role played by legal theories, case law, practices, customary laws, and legislations in shaping and governing mobility between the 19th century and the Second World War. Based on different methodological approaches and sources, including archival documents, special courts’ decisions, diplomatic materials, legal journals and books, and international treaties, the chapters focus on countries of departure and destination both in Western and Eastern regions. Confronted with mass migration, Western legal science has been forced to rethink concepts and institutions such as borders, citizenship and the principle of territoriality. Special courts and administrative bodies were created to govern and control this new complex social phenomenon. This work, related to the national research project Legal History and Mass Migration: Integration, Exclusion, and Criminalization of Migrants in the 19th and 20th Century (Prin 2017), contributes to the investigation of the historical tensions between individual freedom of mobility and state sovereignty over border control. It contributes to the current public debate on ius migrandi – freedom of movement, or the right to migrate – showing the complexity of its historical dimension. The book will be of interest to scholars in the fields of Legal History, Legal Theory, Sociology of Law, International Migration Law, Labor Law and Criminology, as well as those working on themes related to Forced Migration and Refugee Studies.