Immigration Detention meets Evidence Law: a discussion paper

Abstract

This discussion paper aims to encourage a broader engagement between the fields of evidence law and administrative law, using evidence in the Canadian immigration detention review setting as a case study. For most, the field of evidence law is essentially concerned with the rules of non-admissibility. This narrow vision of evidence law partly explains why administrative decision-making and administrative law only sporadically reaches to evidence law’s lessons—and why administrative law settings feature only infrequently in evidence law doctrine. This disconnect is regrettable because contact between the fields could be mutually enriching: evidence law has a rich tradition of thinking about information and, today, administrative law is the primary site of contact between the individual and the state. This paper considers if and how the disconnect between administrative law and evidence law can be bridged.

Keywords: Evidence law, immigration detention, administrative law