Editorial
right to a nationality has dedicated non-governmental organisation initiatives
operating at local, country, regional and global levels. In the midst of this fastevolving environment, there is much to study, to debate and to share. We intend
for the Review to be a resource that is of use to anyone working in this field as
they seek to further their understanding of the issue.
The Review is a high-quality journal with the demanding standards required by
an academic publication. The scope of the journal is wide in terms of subject
matter interest, taking a broad approach to the topics within the ambit of
statelessness and citizenship. It is not confined to any particular region, or issue,
or methodology. The inaugural volume presents a diverse mix of geographic
research foci — including Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Viet Nam and a book review on a
publication about the African region. It also features big-picture, conceptual
research (Allison Petrozziello and Marija Dobrić) as well as in-depth, localised
empirical studies (Jamie Liew) and work that mixes both (Patrick Balazo and
Susan Kneebone, Brandais York and Sayomi Ariyawansa). The journal is
explicitly and avowedly inter-disciplinary, recognising that to understand
statelessness we need an exchange that cuts across disciplinary silos and that the
study of statelessness has also much to offer to a multitude of disciplines. We were
delighted to already receive contributions to the inaugural volume from scholars
with different disciplinary backgrounds and approaches and will make every effort
to diversify this further as the journal becomes more established.
At the same time, the Review reserves a special place for the discussion of case
law, in recognition of the need to pay greater attention to the many and often
ground-breaking jurisprudential developments in this field. The Case Notes by
Bronwen Manby, Katja Swider and Kim Rubenstein and Elizabeth Harris cover
landmark cases from the African and European regional human rights courts and
the Australian national legal system that, between them, touch on themes as
diverse as the deprivation of nationality as a political tool, the identification and
protection of stateless persons in a migratory context and the right of every child
to a nationality. Unpacking the approach that courts take to real-world situations
of statelessness can help to inform not just our understanding of the progressive
development of statelessness law, but also how to situate this in its wider political,
historical and social context. The Critique and Commentary section, which in this
inaugural volume presents a Symposium on ‘The State of Statelessness Studies’
with the contributions by Baluarte, Cole and Kingston cited earlier, enables the
journal to accommodate commentary on policy developments, proposals,
developments and ideas — from any discipline or sector.
In closing, a few words about the production of the Review. From the outset,
ISI and the Peter McMullin Centre agreed to combine the commitment to deliver
a high-quality publication with a commitment to ensure that the product of all the
hard work that goes into such an endeavour would be freely accessible to all. For
us, especially in light of the subject of the work and the evolution of the field (both
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