Safety of Rwanda Bill: legal commentary

The Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill returns to the House of Commons on 16 and 17 January 2024. The Government argues that the approach taken by the bill is “justified as a matter of parliamentary sovereignty, constitutional propriety, UK law, and the UK’s international obligations”. External legal experts have issued their own analyses supporting or contesting this view:

• Bar Council, Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill – Briefing for MPs – second reading (PDF), December 2023
• Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law, Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill: A Preliminary Rule of Law Analysis for House of Commons Second Reading, 11 December 2023
• European Research Group of Conservative Parliamentarians, Opinion of the Legal Committee on the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill, 10 December 2023
• Garden Court Chambers, Blog: Irena Sabic KC and Alex Grigg Reflect on the Rwanda Bill, 22 December 2023
• ILPA, JUSTICE and Freedom from Torture, Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill: Joint Briefing for Second Reading in the House of Commons, 8 December 2023
• Institute for Government, What is in the prime minister’s ‘emergency’ asylum legislation?, 8 December 2023
• Joint Committee on Human Rights, Chair’s Briefing Paper: Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill (PDF), 11 December 2023
• Liberty, Liberty’s briefing for second reading of the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill (PDF), December 2023
• Policy Exchange, Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Migration) Bill, 11 December 2023
• Public Law for Everyone, The Rwanda Bill and its constitutional implications, 6 December 2023 and Could the Supreme Court reject the Rwanda Bill as unconstitutional?, 11 December 2023
• Society of Conservative Lawyers, Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill – constitutional and effective? (PDF), December 2023
• UK Constitutional Law Association, Ouster Clause Redux: The Court of Appeal’s decision in LA (Albania), 21 November 2023

This briefing attempts to summarise some of the competing legal arguments. For general discussion of the bill, see the Library’s existing briefing produced ahead of second reading.