280 K. Henrard Brubaker ‘the principle and the administrative apparatus of closure are essential to the modern state and its project of territorial rule’.68 4.1 Acquisition of Nationality When discussing what determines the contours of the community, the in–out criteria, in relation to the nation-state, the notion of nation needs to be considered, more particularly: What defines a nation? What holds it together?69 The discussion of membership of a political community above has already noted that when states set out to define ‘their own’, their nationals, one way or the other they seek to identify those with an attachment to the state, a certain commitment, loyalty, to the territory and/or its people.70 In its famous Nottebohm judgment71 the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has emphasized the relevance of an effective or genuine link between an individual and a state to justify a conferral of nationality on the individual concerned that needs to be respected by other states.72 According to Crawford: ‘the decision in Nottebohm is a reflection of a fundamental concept long present in the materials concerning nationality on the international plane’.73 There are indeed ample antecedents in continental literature and decisions of national courts.74 When reflecting on the proxies that can be used to measure this link, this attachment, one needs to think further about the type of bond nationality is supposed to capture. It has been argued that being a citizen of a state is having a stake in the country,75 so that one’s well-being is bound with the well-being of the state.76 Markers that have been suggested in this respect include habitual residence, having the center of ones interests and family ties in the state concerned.77 Arguably, having a stake in a state is also related to the special rights and protection mechanisms one is entitled to as national of that state,78 since this entails that one’s interests are profoundly affected by the institutions of that state.79 Crawford posits that the ‘effective link’ requirement can be satisfied through residence requirements and membership of ethnic groups associated with the state territory.80 This in turn can be related to the various ways in which the nation can be conceived, as an ethnic nation or a civic 68 Brubaker (1992), p. 24. See also Anderson (2017). 70 Brubaker (1992), pp. 88–92, 122–124. 71 Nottebohm (Liechtenstein v. Guatemala), Judgment, ICJ Reports 1955, p. 4. 72 It needs to be acknowledged that some authors seek to nuance the implications of Nottebohm, as being specific to the case of dual nationals (Leigh (1971), p. 468). 73 Crawford (2012), p. 513. 74 See also Basdevant (1909), p. 59; German nationality (1952) 19 ILR 319. 75 See also Bauböck (2009) on ‘External Citizenship’; Tanasoca (2015), p. 40. 76 Crawford (2012) highlights in this respect that when the UN Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness of 1961 obliges states to reduce statelessness, it relies on ‘various criteria of factual connection and evidence of allegiance’, p. 517. 77 Nottebohm (Liechtenstein v. Guatemala), Judgment, ICJ Reports 1955, p. 4, at 22. 78 See also de Groot (2015), p. 29. 79 Tanasoca (2015), p. 40. 80 Crawford (2012), p. 514. 69 123