734 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL LAW [Vol. 105:694 That appears to be changing. Scholars are increasingly situating dual citizenship in a rights frame,274 and NGOs have begun to formulate a right to maintain the status.275 The 1997 European Convention on Nationality adopts a rights optic. In contrast to its 1963 predecessor,276 the Convention refrains from condemning multiple nationality as a problem, and instead notes “the desirability of finding appropriate solutions to consequences of multiple nationality and in particular as regards the rights and duties of multiple nationals.”277 In its operative provisions, the Convention requires states to permit multiple nationality for children born with the status and for persons acquiring nationality automatically by marriage.278 This latter protection advances sex equality in nationality practice279 but can be further conceived as recognizing and validating the fact of concurrent national identities more generally.280 The Convention also provides that states may not make termination of original nationality a condition to naturalization when such termination is not possible or cannot be reasonably required.281 The Convention represents a watershed as the first multilateral undertaking that protects dual nationality. It lays a foundation on which to build more expansive protections.282 This new, partial protection of dual citizenship has shifted the discourse to one that accounts for the interests of individuals, not just of states.283 States are also beginning to recognize dual citizenship through bilateral treaty arrangements.284 The terms of the 1997 European Convention are consistent with global trends. Recent state practice concerning multiple nationality points to increased acceptance of that 274 See Peter J. Spiro, Dual Citizenship as Human Right, 8 INT’L J. CONST. L. 111 (2010); see also Thomas Faist, Dual Citizenship: Change, Prospects, and Limits, in DUAL CITIZENSHIP IN EUROPE , supra note 4, at 171, 174 (“If pressed to single out one key factor influencing the increase in tolerance of dual citizenship, it is perhaps the growing importance of human rights in international and national law.”); Knop, supra note 132, at 118 (dual nationality “is one possible solution to the problem of equality and nationality”); Rubenstein, supra note 10, at 174 (arguing that “principles against dual or multiple nationality are no longer valid in the current framework and that multiple citizenships are in fact the norm and will be embraced in the future”); Rubio-Marı́n, supra note 106, at 142– 43 (arguing that emigrants should have a right to retain their original nationality upon naturalization in another state); see also Rainer Bauböck, Towards a Political Theory of Migrant Transnationalism, 37 INT’L MIGRATION REV. 700, 711 (2003) (“after some time of legal residence immigrants acquire a right to naturalization that should not depend on renouncing their previous citizenship”). Dual nationality has been the subject of substantial scholarly interest in recent years. See supra note 4 and accompanying text. 275 See, e.g., MANBY, CITIZENSHIP LAWS IN AFRICA, supra note 5, at 15–16 (Open Society Institute–sponsored study calling for acceptance of dual citizenship by African states). 276 See Convention on Reduction of Cases of Multiple Nationality and Military Obligations in Cases of Multiple Nationality, pmbl., May 6, 1963, ETS No. 43, 634 UNTS 221 (“Considering that cases of multiple nationality are liable to cause difficulties and that joint action to reduce as far as possible the number of cases of multiple nationality, as between member States, corresponds to the aims of the Council of Europe[.]”). 277 European Convention on Nationality, supra note 117, pmbl. 278 See id., Art. 14. 279 See, e.g., BOLL, supra note 4, at 242– 48; Faist, supra note 274, at 174; Knop, supra note 132, at 109 –10. 280 See Spiro, supra note 274, at 124. 281 European Convention on Nationality, supra note 117, Art. 16. 282 See Sabourin, supra note 159, at 114 (describing the Convention’s significance beyond Europe). 283 See Rubenstein, supra note 10, at 184 (predicting “increasing willingness in international treaty law to acknowledge and encourage dual and multiple nationality”). 284 Spain is notable in undertaking such arrangements with Latin American states. See BOLL, supra note 4, at 51–57; see also supra notes 217–20 and accompanying text (describing preferential naturalization regimes); cf. Giovanni Kojanec, Multiple Nationality, in TRENDS AND DEVELOPMENTS IN NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL LAW ON NATIONALITY, supra note 159, at 37 (suggesting that in the absence of customary norms, regulation of multiple nationality should be addressed by treaty). 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