Toothless European Citizenship / Šimon Uradnik

3.1.2 Emergence of Form-Status of Union Citizenship As was already abovementioned, the derivative nature of the acquisition of Union citizenship is more-or-less universally recognised; therefore, a look must be taken at Member States’ nationality laws as these are also laws of Union citizenship. Nonetheless, given that more than one pen has already been dipped in mapping this issue thoroughly, 192 this look is rather concise in terms of which approaches are followed. With regard to the acquisition ex lege , fundamental nationality law of all Member States is ius sanguinis , with a plethora of various rationales. 193 In contrast, ius soli serves, in a majority of the Member States, only as an additional way of acquisition — if a born child would be stateless or in cases of foundlings. Automatic and unconditional ius soli is not present anywhere except in France, Luxemburg and Spain, yet in the form of ‘double ius soli ’, 194 which means that an individual acquires nationality ex lege of that state only if he or she is already the second generation born in that state. 195 Conditional ius soli is practised in 192 For this purpose, see, exempli gratia , Maarten Peter Vink and Rainer Bauböck, ‘Citizenship configurations: Analysing the multiple purposes of citizenship regimes in Europe’ (2013) 2013/11 Comparative European Politics 622; Gerard-René de Groot, ‘Conditions for Acquisition of Nationality by Operation of Law or by Lodging a Declaration of Option’ (2002) 9/2 Maastricht Journal of European and Comparative Law 121; Patrick Weil, ‘Access to citizenship: A comparison of twenty-five nationality laws’ in T Alexander Aleinikoff and Douglas Klusmeyer (eds), Citizenship Today: Global Perspectives and Practices (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace 2001) 17; or, up-to-date, Ashley ManthaHollands and Jelena Dzankic, ‘Ties that bind and unbind: charting the boundaries of European Union citizenship’ (2022) 49/9 Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 2091. 193 For France, it is undoubtedly the fulfilment of the ideals of the French Revolution; to that effect, see Patrick Weil, ‘From conditional to secured and sovereign: The new strategic link between the citizen and the nation-state in a globalized world’ (2011) 9/3 International Journal of Constitutional Law 617. Whereas for Germany, ius sanguinis has played a role of an ethnocultural divider as German nationality had been for a long period of time ‘open [only] to ethnic German immigrants from Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, but remarkably closed to non-German immigrants’; for this purpose, see Rogers Brubaker, Citizenship and Nationhood in France and Germany (Harvard University Press 1992) 3. 194 Ashley ManthaHollands and Jelena Dzankic, ‘Ties that bind and unbind: charting the boundaries of European Union citizenship’ (2022) 49/9 Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 2098. 195 ‘GLOBALCIT Citizenship Law Dataset − Modes of Acquisition of Citizenship’ (Robert Schuman Centre 2020) accessed 15 th May 2023.

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