Thus, the role of classic international law was limited to regulating conflict of laws, in other words to ‘order management’.23 In 1955, the International Court of Justice, in the Nottebohm case, held: ‘… it is for every sovereign State, to settle by its own legislation the rules relating to the acquisition of its nationality’. 24 It follows that as a matter of traditional doctrine, citizenship membership criteria, in the sense of identity, have been a matter of national selfdefinition or State discretion, with hardly any interference from international law.25 More recently, matters of nationality and nationality law as reserved domain have come to be challenged by human rights law.26 A new rights conception of citizenship has begun to emerge based on the principle of equality in State practice on citizenship, and limitations on the denial and deprivation of citizenship. Regional institutions (particularly in Europe and the Americas) and States practice have been ‘receptive to’ this new rights conception of citizenship.27 2.1 The right to a nationality The ‘rights perspective’ was made explicit in Article 15 UDHR. Described as ‘a total innovation in the history of international law’,28 Article 15 provides: 1. Everyone has the right to a nationality. 2. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality. This fundamental provision has been held to fulfill two functions: to provide people with ‘a sense of identity’, and to give them entitlements to an array of basic rights.29 Article 15(1) protects the right to a nationality, namely, the right of everyone to acquire, change and retain a nationality. More specifically, the right to retain a nationality corresponds to the prohibition of arbitrary deprivation of nationality in Article 15(2).30 Peter J. Spiro, ‘A New International Law of Citizenship’, 105 American Journal of International Law 2011, pp.694746, at 698. See also, Kay Hailbronner, ‘Nationality in public international law and European law’, in R. Bauböck, E. Ersbøll, K. Groenendijk & H. Waldrauch (eds.), Acquisition and Loss of Nationality: Policies and trends in 15 European countries, volume 1, Amsterdam University Press (2006), s.1.1.4. 24 (1955) ICJ Reports, p.20. 25 Peter J. Spiro, ‘A New International Law of Citizenship’, 105 American Journal of International Law 2011, pp.694746, at p.694. 26 ‘Human rights are rights held simply by virtue of being a human person. They are part and parcel of the integrity and dignity of the human being’. Rosalyn Higgins, Problems & Process – International Law and How We Use it, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994, p.96. 27 Peter J. Spiro, ‘A New International Law of Citizenship’, 105 American Journal of International Law 2011, at p.695. 28 Ibid, at p.710, footnote 105, referring to the words of Nehemiah Robinson. 29 Sheila Keetharuth, welcoming remarks to a meeting held in Banjul, The Gambia, 14 May 2010 on ‘The African Charter and the Right to a Nationality’ – available at http://www.afrimap.org/english/images/research_pdf/CRAI-Report-of-BJL-meeting-final.pdf [accessed 8 August 2013] 30 UN Human Rights Council, ‘Human rights and arbitrary deprivation of nationality: report of the SecretaryGeneral’, 14 December 2009, A/HRC/13/34, para.21 available at: 23 5