Investor citizenship and refusal as political practice of states and non-citizens

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In the context of citizenship, ‘refusal’ can have both a state dimension and an individual one. It creates populations whose rights are limited domestically or internationally, either through their own volition or by deliberate state action. While in these cases investor citizenship can indeed serve the instrumental purpose of attributing a status it remains a highly problematic practice. Read More …

Ius Soli: a French constitutional principle?

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Since 2008, the archives of the Conseil constitutionnel (the French constitutional court) must be disclosed after a period of twenty-five years. The centre-piece of these archives is the verbatim of the judges’ deliberation. The recent release of the deliberations of the major decision of 20 July 1993 shows new aspects about nationality law in France. Notably, some of these (no longer) secret discussions of the judges suggest that ius soli, while currently only included in ordinary law, could also become an unwritten constitutional principle. Read More …

The revival of denaturalisation under the Trump administration

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In 1967, the United States Supreme Court put an end to the U.S. government’s aggressive denaturalisation campaigns, declaring in Afroyim v. Rusk that denaturalisation for any reason other than fraud or mistake violated the U.S. Constitution. More than fifty years later, the Trump administration has resurrected denaturalisation by broadly defining fraud and mistake, as well as by seeking to remove citizenship through the civil system, under which the target has few procedural protections. Read More …