450 • Identifying the Stateless in the United Kingdom accuracy of the information gathered. After each interview, those research participants who had expressed the wish to check the accuracy of my notes received a computer printout of them. Lastly, I gathered background information to gain a deeper understanding of the situation through conversations with practitioners at conferences and training programmes on statelessness.51 HO officials in charge of immigration detention declined to be interviewed for the study.52 The term ‘access to justice’ is not used in international law or judicial decisions.53 In legal scholarship, ‘access to justice’ is associated with a number of other, often interchangeable, terms used ‘to cover particular elements, such as access to court, effective remedies or fair trial’.54 The umbrella concept of ‘access to justice’ highlights the nature and extent of unmet legal needs and legal assistance.55 It further explores the impact of the gap – between availability and access – on persons for whom access to the legal system is highly challenging and administrative procedures lack the necessary effectiveness. This study’s focus on access to justice allowed an enhanced analysis of legislation, policies, and practices that prevent fair and equal treatment when stateless persons interact with SDPs and the immigration detention framework.56 A review of the literature shows that, over the past 40 years, the concept of ‘access to justice’ has changed such that, at present, there is little agreement amongst scholars as to what it means in practice. This is partly because on-the-ground legal problems have recently become more complex due to a more socio-demographically diverse population of rights claimants (such as racial minorities, immigrants, people of colour, refugees, non-native speakers, people with disabilities) whose needs vary from those of the 51 52 53 54 55 56 Training on statelessness and immigration detention for practitioners (London, 16 February 2017); ‘Arbitrary Detention of Stateless Persons in the UK’ (ENS Conference, Budapest, Hungary, 3–5 May 2017). This information was used purely as background to aid my understanding of the actual practice. Hoping to improve policy and decision making, I provided a copy of the final study to the HO statelessness unit. European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), Access to Justice in Europe: An Overview of Challenges and Opportunities (2010) 14. The Treaty of Lisbon is an exception in that it introduces a specific reference to ‘access to justice’, stating that ‘the Union shall facilitate access to justice, in particular through the principle of mutual recognition of judicial and extrajudicial decisions in civil matters’. ibid 15; Treaty of Lisbon amending the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty establishing the European Community (Treaty of Lisbon) art 81(12)(e). FRA (n 53) 16. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), ‘Understanding Effective Access to Justice’ (OECD Conference, Paris, France, 3–4 November 2016) 1. ‘Within the legal setting, justice is traditionally equated with equality, fairness and respects for individual rights’. Asher Flynn and Jacqueline Hodgson, ‘Access to Justice and Legal Aid Cuts: A Mismatch of Concepts in the Contemporary Australian and British Legal Landscapes’ in Asher Flynn and Jacqueline Hodgson (eds), Access to Justice and Legal Aid. Comparative Perspectives on Unmet Legal Need (Hart Publishing 2017) 1, 6. Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/ijrl/article/32/3/440/6065591 by guest on 04 July 2025 3. A CC E S S TO J U ST I C E A S T H E F R A M E W O R K O F A N A LY S I S