NAMEST-STATDUONAT · A Comparative North American-European Study on Two Anomalies to the Traditional Westphalian Nation State Model: Statelessness and Dual Nationality

A Comparative North American-European Study on Two Anomalies to the Traditional Westphalian Nation State Model: Statelessness and Dual Nationality

As an outgoing Marie Curie Fellow at Maastricht University, Dr. Olivier Vonk spent the academic years 2012-2014 as a visiting researcher at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, where he worked on the project 'A Comparative North American-European Study on Two Anomalies to the Traditional Westphalian Nation State Model: Statelessness and Dual Nationality'. Although his primary objective was therefore to investigate the citizenship legislation of the United States and Canada, with special emphasis on matters of dual citizenship and statelessness, he went considerably beyond his obligations by in fact analyzing the citizenship legislation of all thirty-five countries in the Western Hemisphere. In conducting his research, Dr. Vonk greatly benefitted from the help of the Georgetown University staff as well as the wealth of comparative materials at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC and at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) in Mexico City. He also travelled to the Caribbean and Latin America for his research, which not only increased his knowledge on the respective countries' citizenship laws but also of their history in general - a very important aspect when it comes to studying nationality legislation and something that Dr. Vonk paid due regard to while working on the 'country analyses' of the thirty-five countries. Using legislative and other materials in the five languages spoken on the American continent, Dr. Vonk in particular mapped in a very detailed way the different grounds for the acquisition and loss of citizenship. His work was published by the reputed legal publisher Brill in September 2014 as 'Nationality Law in the Western Hemisphere: A Study on Grounds for Acquisition and Loss of Citizenship in the Americas and the Caribbean' (http://www.brill.com/products/book/nationality-law-western-hemisphere). Dr. Vonk's outstanding contribution to the legal scholarship on citizenship law in the Americas is particularly timely, since the last book on this subject dates back to the previous century and was written in German (Hellmuth Hecker, Das Staatsangehörigkeitsrecht von Amerika, 1984). Dr. Vonk's analysis has also shown that research on citizenship law is a neglected field of study in the Americas and that more research is necessary. In that connection, his findings have been used by the online expert network on matters of citizenship known as the EUDO CITIZENSHIP Observatory (http://eudo-citizenship.eu/) in building Global Nationality Law Databases on the Acquisition and Loss of Citizenship as well as Statelessness. The links to these freely available databases are: http://eudo-citizenship.eu/global-modes-of-acquisition http://eudo-citizenship.eu/global-modes-of-loss http://eudo-citizenship.eu/databases/protection-against-statelessness In addition to establishing contacts in the United States and Canada, Dr. Vonk travelled extensively in the Caribbean and Latin America – both for his own research and with a view to future follow-up projects. In particular, Dr. Vonk was very active in recruiting country experts from the different countries who have meanwhile joined EUDO CITIZENSHIP and who will elaborate on his work by writing country reports on their respective countries’ citizenship legislation and rules relating to the franchise. Throughout 2014 and 2015, Dr. Vonk was heavily involved in the coordination and supervision of in total thirty-eight reports, which inter alia focus on any possible discrepancies between the wording of citizenship laws and the national practice and implementation (available at (http://eudo-citizenship.eu/country-profiles). The information available in the freely accessible Databases allows anyone interested in citizenship law and rules relating to the franchise to compare Europe with the Americas. Having returned to Maastricht University for the third and final year of the fellowship, Dr. Vonk further built on work conducted during the first two years, in particular the monograph 'Nationality Law in the Western Hemisphere' and the abovementioned online databases. The reason for covering the Americas within the EUDO CITIZENSHIP Observatory is to identify international trends and to provide users with a tool that allows that allows cross-country or cross-continental comparisons. This is becoming increasingly important as nationality law should be studied from the perspective of both sending and receiving states. The (Latin) American perspective is therefore very relevant for migrants living in Europe, but also for Europeans migrating to the Americas. Furthermore, Dr, Vonk prioritised two different matters during the final year of his fellowship. First, to study citizenship law from a more international and normative perspective, and, second, to attract new funding to continue his work on globalizing the area of citizenship studies. As for the first point, Dr. Vonk collaborated with Prof. G.R. de Groot of Maastricht University on a project entitled 'International Standards on Nationality Law: Texts, Cases and Materials' (approximately 1000 pages; forthcoming with Wolf Legal Publishers, Netherlands). This textbook, which can be used by professionals and students alike, is the first collection ever of all the relevant materials on nationality under international law. As for the second point, Dr. Vonk took up a position as a Marie Curie Fellow under the BeIPD (“Be International PostDoc”)-COFUND programme at the University of Liège with a project entitled ‘Towards Global Nationality Studies’ (academic host: Prof. Patrick Wautelet). As the title suggests, this 2-year research project, which started on 1 October 2017, will take a truly global perspective on the matter of nationality law - in particular by looking at the remaining continents Asia, Oceania and Africa. In that connection, is worth pointing out that Dr. Vonk co-supervised a PhD project by Dr. Bronwen Manby entitled 'Citizenship and Statelessness in Africa: The Law and politics of belonging', defended on 20 October 2015 at Maastricht University and published by Wolf Legal Publishing. Dr. Vonk already conducted a research mission to Australia in summer 2015 to study nationality law in Oceania and to discuss with experts the possibilities for collaborating with the EUDO CITIZENSHIP Observatory. In summary, the funding provided for the project 'A Comparative North American-European Study on Two Anomalies to the Traditional Westphalian Nation State Model: Statelessness and Dual Nationality' has resulted in very concrete results, but has also been essential in attracting funding for the follow up project 'Towards Global Nationality Studies' and for allowing Dr. Vonk to make his research accessible to a wider audience as well as to broaden his research profile and to strengthen his international network.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union