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746 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL LAW [Vol. 105:694 In this sense, emerging international norms regarding national membership show how far international law has come. Community self-definition is constitutive and foundational in the sense that it is prior to any act of the community; what states do is determined by the individuals who compose them. If citizenship practices are not immune to international legal constraint, then nothing is. Nationality law is the last bastion in the citadel of sovereignty. That is not to say that international law now delivers a comprehensive regulatory regime. States will retain important discretionary powers into the future. But no function of governance will be shielded from international law as a categorical matter, membership decisions included. This content downloaded from 82.196.111.31 on Thu, 07 Oct 2021 15:20:30 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

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A New International Law of Citizenship

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Author: P. J. Spiro

Journal / Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Volume / issue: 105

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5305/amerjintelaw.105.4.0694

Document number: 4

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Description: Spiro argues that a new regime relating to citizenship practice is emerging through multiple channels of decentralized international law- making. Some are found in international human rights instruments. In recent years the treaty committees associated with these regimes have moved aggressively in applying treaty terms to citizenship practice. State practice also points toward the new frame, the result of both horizontal and vertical pressures, including as applied by nonstate actors. These trends reflect a reconceptualization of citizenship status, shifting from an identity to a rights frame. It is still not possible, however, to speak generally of a “right to citizenship” (at least not one enforceable on particular states), and it remains difficult even to speak of a right to citizenship in particular cases. Nevertheless, the shift is reflected in recent work of prominent political theorists, who are increasingly articulating a right to citizenship. This theoretical work supplies coherence to developments on the ground and may undergird the eventual hardening of an international law of citizenship.

Type of resource

Academic publication

Source

Academia : Individual Scholarship

Theme

Discrimination
Legal / Digital Identity
Nationality Deprivation

Date published: Oct 5, 2011

Source URL: Direct Link

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Peter Spiro, New international law of citizenship.pdf
English
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A New International Law of Citizenship

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