“Courts must objectively determine jurisdictional facts in immigration detention cases.”
Khawaja was detained as an illegal entrant. He challenged his detention arguing he was not actually an illegal entrant and that the Home Secretary's subjective belief was insufficient to justify detention.
Whether the court should review immigration detention decisions on a subjective or objective basis when determining if someone is an 'illegal entrant'.
The House of Lords held that courts must objectively determine whether jurisdictional facts exist, not merely whether the Home Secretary reasonably believed them to exist.
This case established important principles about intensity of review, particularly regarding jurisdictional facts and fundamental rights. It influenced the development of more rigorous judicial review in human rights contexts.
You're reading the free summary of R v Home Secretary ex p Khawaja. Create a free account to unlock the full reasoning, the cited authorities and the verbatim judgment — plus structured briefs for 412,000+ UK judgments.
No card required. Free forever.
OSCOLA Citation
R v Secretary of State for the Home Department, ex p Khawaja [1984] AC 74 (HL)
Multiple official and mirror sources — pick whichever loads cleanly on your network.
Falls back to Google for old citations BAILII catalogues separately
Common Room
0 comments · About the Common Room →
No comments yet — start the discussion.
Voted-best comments help future students and feed Caselaw's AI study tools.