A presentation and discussion with Linda Bosniak (Rutgers University School of Law) on “Amnesty Ethics.”

The idea of “amnesty” has come to structure many debates over irregular immigration. While amnesty’s meaning is usually treated as self-evident, the term in fact signifies in a variety of normative directions. Contestations over amnesty’s legitimacy and proper application serve as a powerful site for analyzing debates over accountability, fault and emancipation in immigration as well as in other political settings.

Linda Bosniak is Distinguished Professor at Rutgers University School of Law.  She is the author of the book The Citizen and the Alien: Dilemmas of Contemporary Membership, and of many articles and book chapters on the subjects of borders, citizenship, equality, territoriality and transnational migration. She spent the academic year 2015-2016, as a Member at the Institute For Advanced Study in Princeton in the School of Social Science, and continues there as a Visitor this year.  She is currently working on a book critically analyzing conceptions of immigrant justice in liberal national states. She has taught at Princeton University and at the University of Graz, and has been awarded fellowships through the Rockefeller Foundation and Princeton University.