Statelessness: A Modern History came to signify in the midst of fears in international circles of impending chaos and anarchy within the international order. In a situation where securing the legitimacy of states was viewed as a moral imperative, statelessness became a threat to the fragile order. As such, it was wilfully consigned to the realms of legal fiction. Whilst popular fiction depicted the threats of statelessness as international outlawry and piracy, legal and policy circles turned a blind eye. In a world where identity documents and passports were increasingly becoming mandatory, 9 the reality of stateless individuals and large stateless populations came knocking on the door of the League of Nations, eventually forcing international responses. These realities propagated intellectual reflection on the governing norms of international order and how statelessness fitted into these norms. 10 Chapters 2 and 3 focus on the decade that followed the First World War as postimperial states came into being seeking legitimacy, and group demands for political representation accelerated. Notions of the stateless person as a threat to international security gave way to constructions of the stateless as victims of circumstance. The two chapters consider the different ideological contexts to statelessness, and the foundations of today’s political order that grew out of the postimperial context. International debates around how to counteract statelessness infused with discussions on how to protect minority groups within the boundaries of new states and resulted in the minority treaties. Statelessness symbolised a changed paradigm in which legal status was no longer dependent on national belonging. It was, for the first time, perceived as a product of the gaps and conflicts between different nationality laws, requiring state-level responses. Meanwhile approaches that provided international protection to the stateless, that were driven by internationalist ideals, were partially subdued. Group statelessness was dealt with on piecemeal basis based on political expediency, such as providing ‘the Nansen passport’ to Russian emigres to contain the ideological threat of Bolshevism. Siegelberg highlights these tensions between statist approaches and internationalism that characterised the era. Chapter 2 is populated with the world leaders and international jurists of the past, providing an overview of the significance of statelessness within the context of differing ideologies, including the approaches of key figures such as Vladimir Lenin, Woodrow Wilson and Mahatma Gandhi. Chapter 3 follows the developing analyses of jurists and legal theorists including Mark Vishniak, Heinrich Oppenheim, Hans Kelsen and Carl Schmitt to explore the tensions between legal theory and the political realities of the day. In this context, the stateless person provided a conceptual point of reference in a world begotten by war. Statelessness generated debates around legal personality, the norms of the world order and the nature of international law. Central theoretical discussions during this period, related to the status of individuals, collectives/groups and states within the international legal order. Fierce debates ensued as to whether rights were conferred through individual personhood or through membership of a state. Chapter 4, ‘The Real Boundaries of Membership’, 11 covers the 1930s — a period that saw the rise of fascism and large refugee movements in Europe and China. During this period, securing visas and passports became a life and death 9 10 11 John Torpey, ‘The Great War and the Birth of the Modern Passport System’ in Jane Caplan and John Torpey (eds), Documenting Individual Identity (Princeton University Press 2001) 256. Siegelberg (n 4) 47. ibid 127. 165