Strangled by reform: Legal Aid, professional autonomy, and access to justice in the asylum sector from 1949 to 2024

This article investigates the evolution of professional autonomy in the asylum legal aid sector in England from 1949 to 2024, bringing to light how successive legal aid reforms have reconfigured the jurisdictional authority of publicly funded asylum legal representatives. Drawing on Andrew Abbott’s theory of the professions, the article explores how bureaucratic regulation, political hostility, and chronic underfunding have gradually hollowed out professional discretion while leaving formal responsibility intact. Through a phased historical analysis and qualitative data drawn from rich in-depth interviews with experienced practitioners, the article presents an original empirical contribution that both tests and extends Abbott’s concept of jurisdictional reconfiguration. The research is grounded in a rigorous methodological approach that combines doctrinal analysis, socio-legal theory, and lived practitioner experience to offer a layered account of structural change and its everyday effects. This work is significant not only because of its novel theoretical intervention, but also for its practical implications: it offers timely insights into how public sector reforms are reshaping professional autonomy, with consequences for access to justice in the asylum system and beyond. As the UK government undertakes a renewed inquiry into the future of civil legal aid, this article highlights the urgent need to confront how bureaucratic systems constrain the very expertise required to deliver justice effectively.