Private Guest Night

With a champagne reception and black tie dinner, Private Guest Night is one of the Inn’s grander events.

Benchers are encouraged to bring esteemed colleagues from other fields.

Pre-dinner lecture:

Human Trafficking , Folk Devils and the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 | Dr Jason Haynes

On 28 April 2022, the Westminster Parliament passed the hugely controversial Nationality and Borders Act. The Act, which was introduced by then Home Secretary Priti Patel, was the single biggest overhaul of the UK’s immigration system in decades. The Act’s Explanatory Memorandum notes that the Act aims to deter illegal entry into the United Kingdom; remove more easily those with no right to be in the UK; and increase the overall fairness of the system. Notwithstanding these seemingly laudable objectives, however, this Article argues that, in so far as human trafficking is concerned, the Act represents a retrograde step in the protection of victims of trafficking. More specifically, it contends that, in an age of heightened securitization and moral panics, the Nationality and Borders Act will operate to create ‘folk devils’ of victims of trafficking who do not self-identify, and unduly penalize victims of trafficking who have committed offenses as a direct result of the trafficking experience. Relying upon Stanley Cohen’s ‘folk devils’ critique in the context of moral panics, this Article argues that the new Act will concretize a dangerous dichotomy between ‘folk heroes’ and ‘folk devils’, and ‘iconic victims’ and ‘dangerous people’, which represents a regressive step in the protection of the rights of victims of trafficking in the United Kingdom.

Dr. Jason Haynes is an Associate Professor at Birmingham Law School, having previously been Senior Lecturer in Law and Deputy Dean (Graduate Studies & Research) at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Barbados. He is an Academic Fellow of Middle Temple. He previously served as Senior Legal Officer at the British High Commission, Bridgetown, Barbados, where he acted in the capacity of an international lawyer for the UK Crown Prosecution Service’s (CPS) International Division. He is an Academic Fellow at the Honourable Society of Middle Temple, UK; an O’Brien Fellow in Residence at McGill University, Canada; and a Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy. He is an attorney-at-law admitted to practise in St Vincent and the Grenadines and Barbados, and is the author of the monograph, Caribbean Anti-Trafficking Law and Practice (Hart Publishing, Oxford, 2019), and co-author of Commonwealth Caribbean Sports Law (Routledge, 2018). He publishes in the areas of anti-trafficking law, sports law and international investment law. Further details here.

Students and transferring lawyers need to attend the lecture before dinner in order to be awarded a Qualifying Session. Other Members and Guests are of course most welcome to attend too.