The ninth edition of Macdonald’s Immigration Law and Practice is now available for purchase. Fully updated with material on the Immigration Act 2014 and much, much more, this is an essential text for any serious immigration lawyer.

You can pick up a copy here (affiliate link, and also I am one of the contributors):

MacDonald’s Immigration Law & Practice (2 Volume Set)

As the blurb says:

Since the publication of the first edition in 1983 Macdonald’s Immigration Law & Practice has established itself as the standard textbook in the field and is recognised by the legal profession as the most authoritative text on immigration law. Written with precision by leading immigration experts, the work has been updated to offer all of the latest legislation, cases, political developments and commentary and guidance on every significant aspect of the law and practice of immigration. The ninth edition has been fully revised to contain all the latest SIs, and recent case law, including decisions from Strasbourg, the House of Lords and the Court of Appeal as well as the latest immigration appeals Procedure Rules, Practice Direction and CPR.

Ian Macdonald writes in the preface (reproduced with permission):

This has been one of the most trying editions to produce, mostly because of the amount of new material since the last edition, but also because there has been such a radical reshaping of some of the fundamental parts of immigration law. Let us start with removals and appeals.

The Immigration Appeals Act 1969 was passed in response to the report of the Wilson Committee on Immigration Appeals, set up in 1966 and chaired by Sir Roy Wilson QC. The report had been commissioned to provide Commonwealth citizens (but not aliens) with appeals against exclusion, removal and other decisions affecting immigrants. In January 1973 the right of appeal was extended to aliens as well as Commonwealth citizens and included an appeal against deportation. Paragraph 85 got to the heart of the matter, stating that the right of appeal is to provide ‘a sense of protection against oppression and injustice, and … reassurance against fears of arbitrary action on the part of the Immigration Service’ and to ensure a more consistent and rational decision-making process.

Other judicial voices have also made it clear that ‘The right of access to justice … is a fundamental and constitutional principle of a legal system’ and ‘a right of access to a tribunal or other adjudicative mechanism established by the state is just as important and fundamental as a right of access to the ordinary courts’. Two important features of a Tribunal appeal are that (a) it is suspensive, meaning that the possibility of removal is suspended until the appeal process is exhausted, and (b) it allows there to be a reconsideration by the Tribunal of the facts by calling witnesses to give live evidence and to produce fresh documentary evidence within certain limits set out in the immigration laws. A Tribunal appeal is, therefore, quite different and more far reaching than judicial review.

Over the years there has been an expansion of appeal rights, coupled with legal aid and assistance to appellants. However, since 2002 there has been a slow whittling down of appeal rights and their suspensive effect by successive governments. This has culminated in the radical changes proposed by the Immigration Act 2014 and being put into effect by successive commencement orders. These involve a root and branch change to the power of removal and to the appellate system, as we have known and used it for so many years. The changes are not only far reaching but also mark a set back to one of the fundamental and constitutional principles of our legal system.

As well as changing removal powers and rights of appeal, the 2014 Act accelerates the process of drawing ever more state and non-state actors into the apparatus of immigration control. The aim is to create a society that is suspicious of and hostile to people perceived to be migrants, an aim recently and chillingly articulated by the government when it explained its refusal to support operations to rescue drowning migrants from the Mediterranean on the basis that to do so would encourage others. Now landlords, banks, health practitioners, and driving licensors are turned into quasi-immigration officers because they are required by the Act to regulate access to their property and services according to the immigration status of their would-be tenants, customers, patients and licensees. The danger is the Act will further the creation of a class of outlaws and promote widespread discrimination by these new quasi-immigration officers who out of will fear of being penalised for providing assistance to outlaws. Will refuse their services to those who look like or talk like migrants or have foreign names. The Act also adds to the information gathering and information sharing powers of the state.

As well as covering all the changes to immigration law, the new edition includes a specific section on legal aid for the first time and a new chapter on human trafficking.