Free Law Dissertations - To What Extent Can Eu Citizenship Be Characterised As An Exclusive
To what extent can EU citizenship be characterised as an exclusive project, and why does this matter?
Introduction
Since the expansion of the European Union into many States of Eastern Europe, EU citizenship is now the status of over 470 Million people. This piece will explore the concept of EU citizenship in light of existing exclusive and inclusive models and will analyze the extent to which it fits in with the former characterisation. In addition, the importance of this exercise will be explained with reference to the political direction of the EU.
A.The Concepts of Exclusive and Inclusive forms of Citizenship
1.Exclusive Citizenship
Exclusive citizenship is the concept of singular identity, which draws a distinction between the citizens and aliens that form the population of a particular sovereignty. Bauböck identifies three key considerations that are relevant to this exercise and represent the distinctions between the citizen and the alien. Firstly, there is the link of citizenship to territoriality. Pogge writes:
For nearly every human being, and for almost every piece of territory, there is exactly one government with pre-eminent authority over, and primary responsibility for, this person or territory
This notion is at least flexible in that acceptance for the responsibility of a State over its citizens, who are not resident within the borders of the State, is at least retained and thus, concepts of absolute sovereignty, such as that promoted by Hobbes do not form part of the modern concept of exclusive citizenship.
Secondly, there is the concept of exclusion from the rights of citizens. This republican notion leads to a territory where the alien has none of the rights of participation that are granted the citizen and would include employment, free healthcare, welfare, free education and political participation. Conversely, there is the obligation for aliens to abide by the laws of the land in which they reside but this does not escape from the fact that residence alone cannot imply personal ratification of Locke’s conceptualised social contract to which only express adherence can induce obligation.
Thirdly, there is the exclusive power of the sovereign to determine the acquisition and loss of citizenship. The Hague Convention on Matters of Nationality 1930 establishes that the creation of parameters for citizenship are to be determined by the Sovereign State but this has the result that rules will differ for each state thus resulting in the phenomenon of dual or even tri citizenship where a person is born in a State that practices ius soli but has parents of another State that practice ius sanguinis or even ius sanguinis
2.Inclusive Citizenship
By contrast, the inclusive citizenship model is a liberal concept that, despite maintaining the distinction between the citizen and the alien, breaks down the above three characteristics that form barriers between the citizen and the alien.
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