Abstract

The paper critically discusses administrative detention of migrants in his "procedural dimension", that means through the "lens" of hearing reports and judicial decisions issued by the Justice of the Peace and the Tribunal of Rome, which have jurisdiction over the detention centre of Roma Ponte Galeria. The study analyses the differences in the "operating practices" of the two authorities throughout Pierre Bourdieu notion of "juridical field". Furthermore, the article focuses on the role played by the detainee in the hearing, to understand him as an "actor of the trial", able to affect the jurisdictional decision. Thus, when the migrant detained applies for international protection, the trial becomes the "place" where the transformation of the migrant's status materially manifests itself and his effects.