Detaining the vulnerable: Youth justice and the pitfalls of reform in Libya

Abstract

This article examines how Libya’s legal framework enables and legitimises the deprivation of liberty as a primary response to children’s vulnerability within the youth justice system. Drawing on a legal analysis of domestic legislation, the article shows how vague categories such as dangerousness, vagrancy, and preventive measures confer broad judicial discretion to institutionalise children, including those below the age of criminal responsibility and those who have not committed an offence. It argues, more specifically, that outdated laws combine control and protection-oriented logics in ways that make detention legally available and easily normalised, particularly for rejected, exploited, and migrant children. Situating Libya within wider debates on the tensions within the Convention on the Rights of the Child between protection and punishment, the article highlights the risks of reform approaches that focus on formal alignment while leaving underlying legal logics intact. It calls for abolitionist, liberty-preserving reform.