The Shifting Parameters of Nationality 281 nation: as a nation built on kinship, or a nation uniting around a common political creed and values.81 It is often emphasized that policing the boundaries of the community making up the state, and thus the criteria and procedures that need to be fulfilled to obtain access to nationality, are one of the last vestiges of state sovereignty.82 It is, however, difficult to deny that increasingly international law also identifies constraints on states’ discretion in this regard. First, the ICJ’s Nottebohm judgment already indicated that states cannot grant nationality without proper basis,83 in that the conferral of nationality needs to reflect a genuine attachment or link. The latter requirement remains topical, as is visible, inter alia, in relation to the controversies surrounding the conferral of nationality to gifted athletes, aimed at more ‘national’ success in the Olympics.84 Similarly, the prohibition of compulsory change of nationality/naturalisation, collective naturalization,85 and extraterritorial naturalisation86 can be related to this ‘effective link’ requirement.87 Secondly, and as will be discussed at more length below, the recognition of the individual right to a nationality, and the related norms aimed at countering statelessness,88 also exert pressure on states to confer nationality on particular individuals (that would otherwise be stateless). Thirdly, and in line with the central importance of the equality principle in international law, international courts have become increasingly critical of instances of racial discrimination in relation to the definition and application of criteria for the acquisition of nationality (at birth).89 The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) established a violation of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (African Charter) because the new nationality law of Côte d’Ivoire retroactively stripped a particular ethnic group of its nationality, notwithstanding its long-standing ties with the state. The 81 These different conceptions of the nation can be related to the different logic of inclusion in the state that Goodman identifies: a logic of sameness (state identity referring to kinship) versus a logic of togetherness (state identity rather referring to solidarity, common plans etc.): Goodman (2014), pp. 2, 27–30. 82 Orgad (2017), p. 345. See also Wimmer (2009), pp. 257–258. 83 According to Crawford the related manipulations of the law of nationality, would amount to internationally wrongful conduct; Crawford (2012), p. 520. 84 For a more detailed account, see Wollmann (2018) in this special issue. 85 In re Rau (1930) 6 ILR 251. 86 Extraterritorial naturalisation has been described as ‘granting of citizenship to persons living in another country who share certain characteristics (e.g. in ethnic, religious or linguistic terms)’. For a detailed analysis, see Traunmuller (2013). See also Bolzano Recommendations on National Minorities and Inter-State Relations, OSCE HCNM (2008), Principle 11: ‘States may take preferred linguistic competences and cultural, historical or familial ties into account in their decision to grant citizenship to individuals abroad. States should, however, ensure that such a conferral of citizenship respects the principles of friendly, including good neighbourly, relations and territorial sovereignty, and should refrain from conferring citizenship en masse…’. The Explanatory Note links this recommendation to the Nottebohm case and its requirement of ‘the existence of a genuine link’ between the state and the individual upon whom citizenship is conferred: Bolzano Recommendations on National Minorities and Inter-State Relations, OSCE HCNM (2008), p. 19. 87 Crawford (2012), pp. 523–524. 88 See also van Waas and Jaghai (2018), and Honohan and Rougier (2018) in this special issue. 89 Spiro (2011), pp. 721–722. 123