Bordering on Legality: Canadian Church Sanctuary and the Rule of Law.

This paper examines the role played by rule of law norms in contemporary Canadian church sanctuary incidents. These incidents generally involve unsuccessful refugee claimants who assert that their claims were denied in error. To avoid imminent deportation, sanctuary seekers request permission from faith-based communities to reside indefinitely within church buildings. Because the state is reluctant to undertake law enforcement activities within church buildings, sanctuary usually results in de facto stays of deportation. Faith-based communities offering sanctuary then seek to negotiate long-term solutions with immigration officials, often leading to discretionary grants of Canadian permanent residence. In this paper, I argue that Canadian church sanctuary practices can be understood as interventions by faith-based communities to correct errors emerging from a procedurally flawed official refugee determination system. I suggest that these interventions offer a legal pluralist model for effective civil society challenges to "legally exceptional" state border control governance -- i.e. governance that departs from regular rule of law norms. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]