Volume 15, Issue 2


BOOK REVIEW: JO SHAW, THE TRANSFORMATION OF CITIZENSHIP IN THE EUROPEAN UNION: ELECTORAL RIGHTS AND THE RESTRUCTURING OF POLITICAL SPACE

15 Colum. J. Eur. L. 343 (2009) reviewed by Gregory A. Odegaard. Editor-in-Chief, Columbia Journal of European Law. There are few topics that generate more interest in contemporary European scholarship than the development of a pan-European citizenship. In fact, the very existence of this special issue of  The Columbia Journal of European Law is evidence of the current activity in this rapidly evolving field. However, despite the large amount of attention being devoted to this area, it is, in fact, a very recent concern. As George Bermann pointedly asks at the outset of this special issue: “Who would have imagined […]


CASE LAW: CASE C-127/08, BLAISE BAHETEN METOCK AND OTHERS V. MINISTER FOR JUSTICE, EQUALITY AND LAW REFORM

15 Colum. J. Eur. L. 321 (2009) Nathan Cambien M.Jur. University of Oxford; Ph. D. fellow of the Research Foundation-Flanders, Institute for European law, University of Leuven. The author wishes to thank Tim Corthaut for his valuable comments and suggestions. On July 25, 2008, the Court of Justice of the European Communities (“ECJ” or “Court”), sitting as the Grand Chamber, handed down its judgment inBlaise Baheten Metock and Others v. Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform[1],  a mere four months after receiving a request for a preliminary ruling from the High Court of Ireland. Metock and Others is a […]


LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

15 Colum. J. Eur. L. 163 (2009) Dear Reader, In the fifteen years since our initial publication, The Columbia Journal of European Law has gone from strength to strength. At present, it is the most cited European law journal in North America, and one of the most cited in the world. Due to the tremendous number of submissions we receive and the logistical demands of a print publication, the editors have decided that a secondary outlet for contemporary research is appropriate. To this end, CJEL has launched an online supplement to complement the print Journal. Because of the space and […]


INTRODUCTION TO THE SPECIAL ISSUE ON EUROPEAN CITIZENSHIP

15 Colum. J. Eur. L. 165 (2009) George A. Bermann. Jean Monnet Professor of European Law and Walter Gellhorn Professor of Law, Columbia Law School. Who would have imagined even fifteen years ago that a notion of “EU citizenship” would come to occupy center-stage in the arena of EU legal developments and widely permeate fields of EU law to which citizenship at the EU level long appeared to have little to say? By contrast, Member State citizenship lay at the heart of things from the start, as rights and obligations alike seemed to turn, at least largely, on whether an […]


IUS TRACTUM OF MANY FACES: EUROPEAN CITIZENSHIP AND THE DIFFICULT RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN STATUS AND RIGHTS

15 Colum. J. Eur. L. 169 (2009) Dimitry Kochenov LL.M. (CEU, Budapest), LL.D. (Groningen). Assistant Professor of European Law, Department of Corporate and European Law, and Fellow of the Graduate School of Law, University of Groningen. Oude Kijk in ‘t Jatstraat 26, 9712EK Groningen, The Netherlands. Parts of this article have been presented at the UACES annual conferences in Portsmouth (September 2007) and Edinburgh (September 2008), at a conference at the Birmingham School of Law (July 2008), and made the core of my Byrd Lecture at James Madison University (October 2008). I am grateful to Prof. Dr. Laurence W. Gormley, […]


POST-NATIONAL CITIZENSHIP IN EUROPE: THE EU AS A “WELFARE RIGHTS GENERATOR”?

15 Colum. J. Eur. L. 239 (2009) Marlene Wind. Associate Professor, University of Copenhagen. As a result of recent developments in the European Union, governments no longer have the exclusive authority to decide who can reside and work in their territories or who is eligible for the social provisions that have traditionally been reserved for their own nationals. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has recently interpreted Union citizenship to confer the benefits associated with EU free movement rights on all citizens of EU Member States. According to the ECJ, there is now so much “financial solidarity” between the EU […]


UNRESPECTED, UNEQUAL, HOLLOW? CONTINGENT CITIZENSHIP AND REVERSIBLE RIGHTS IN THE EUROPEAN UNION

15 Colum. J. Eur. L. 265 (2009) Willem Maas. Jean Monnet Chair in European Integration and Associate Professor of Political Science and Public & International Affairs, Glendon College, York University. Grateful acknowledgements to Jenilee Ward for research assistance. In theory, citizenship denotes intrinsic status, signifying both full membership in the political community and a set of rights that adhere inherently and equally to all citizens. In practice, however, the rights of citizenship are variable and differentiated, and governments often approach citizenship not as a fundamental birthright or basic legal status but rather as a policy tool that is subject to […]


IMPLEMENTATION AS THE TEST CASE OF EUROPEAN CITIZENSHIP

15 Colum. J. Eur. L. 281 (2009) Miriam Aziz. Associate Professor of Law, University of Siena, Italy. This contribution was presented as a seminar paper as part of Cornell Law School’s Berger Program in November 2007. In anticipation of this Special Issue on European Citizenship, the Editors of The Columbia Journal of European Law commissioned an Article from Professor Aziz. We asked her to reflect on her experience with the European project, specifically how the idea of citizenship has guided European development. Drawing from her own interactions with members of the Laeken Convention, as well as the experiences of others, […]


STUDENT NOTE: UNITING THE VOLK: A PLEA FOR THICK HISTORICIZING IN ANALYSES OF CITIZENSHIP LAWS

15 Colum. J. Eur. L. 299 (2009) Spencer Wolff. B.A., Harvard College (2002); M.A., Department of Comparative Literature, Yale University (2005); J.D., Columbia Law School and Master 2 in droit et globalisation économique, Sciences Po Paris (expected 2010). This Note analyzes Germany’s citizenship policies in the latter half of the Twentieth Century via four landmark verdicts of the German Federal Constitutional Court (FCC). Germany’s historical prohibition on dual-citizenship and its legislative commitment to the exclusive transmission of German citizenship by bloodline (jus sanguinis) have been interpreted as continued evidence of Germany’s fixation on an ethnocentric model of citizenship even in […]