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Judging Intimacies at the French Court of Asylum
Author(s) -
Kobelinsky Carolina
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
polar: political and legal anthropology review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.529
H-Index - 27
eISSN - 1555-2934
pISSN - 1081-6976
DOI - 10.1111/plar.12114
Subject(s) - refugee , adjudication , sexual orientation , law , identity (music) , ethnography , sociology , politics , interpreter , criminology , political science , psychology , gender studies , physics , acoustics , anthropology , computer science , programming language
Some legal scholars have asserted that rigid notions of homosexual identity shape adjudicators’ approach when evaluating asylum claims based on sexual orientation. Recent ethnographic research at the French Court of Asylum, in charge of reviewing appeals on decisions from the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons, shows indeed that adjudication is based on particular gender stereotypes. However, my analysis centers on an unexplored but related issue: the relationship between the problems raised by adjudicators when facing what they call “intimacy cases,” specifically regarding the administration of proof and stereotyped performances. Through ethnographic data drawn from encounters with adjudicators and asylum seekers at the French Court of Asylum; through interviews with judges , rapporteurs (reporters), interpreters, and lawyers; and by examining 60 court rulings, I argue that sexual orientation‐based cases crystallize the importance of intimacy in the politics of asylum, helping to seize the new shapes of the refugee as well as the growing difficulties for judges in relying on material evidence . [asylum, sexual orientation, intimacy, proof, France]