12 Colum. J. Eur. L. 713 (2006)
Francesca Strumia, S.J.D. Candidate, Harvard Law School.
This Article explores the judicial application of the doctrines of free movement and citizenship in the European Union and in the United States. A comparative examination of the case law on these two doctrines shows remarkable similarities in the European and American courts’ combination of citizenship and free movement in resolving analogous judicial issues. Further investigation, however, reveals that behind a first sight affinity of judicial formulas, different rationales and diverging constitutional roots can be found in the two systems. In order to spell out more closely the role of citizenship in promoting unconstrained movement in the United States and in Europe, the Article takes into account additional factors incidental to the judicial interplay of citizenship and movement. Considerations of economic versus political integration and interstate equality versus state autonomy turn out to be key in identifying the centripetal forces that govern the role of citizenship in the two examined systems. The Article ultimately offers the outcomes of this investigation as a tool to direct the evaluation of European citizenship, assessing its potential contributions and its shortcomings in the evolving integration of Europe.
