06 May 2025
What is Citizenship For?
Last week, the CJEU declared Malta’s citizenship for investment scheme incompatible with EU law. Setting aside the evidently highly questionable quality and defensibility of the Court’s legal reasoning, the decision clearly casts Union citizenship as a status constituted by meanings and norms specific to the European Union as a normative legal project. What are we to make of this conception of citizenship, and its use by the Court to strike down citizenship for investment schemes? Continue reading >>
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30 April 2025
The EU Free Market Does Not Extend to Citizenship
In the landmark Commission v Malta judgment of 29 April 2025, the European Union Court of Justice outlawed the “commercialisation” of EU citizenship, closing a door for corrupt actors. The Grand Chamber judgment not only bars the Maltese practice at issue, but also casts doubt on the legality of citizenship grants under that and similar schemes, while raising legal arguments for would-be citizens to challenge discriminatory laws. Continue reading >>20 February 2025
EU Citizenship Should Not Be Sold
The CJEU is soon to decide upon Malta’s citizenship for investment scheme. Upholding the Commission’s challenge would not deprive Malta of power to confer Maltese citizenship. Instead, it would build on settled jurisprudence that EU law constrains national rules conferring EU citizenship and follow the longstanding direction of travel of the Court’s jurisprudence, which has already overcome objections that it is too radical. Continue reading >>10 January 2025
“This Undermines the State’s Promise of Equality”
Five Questions to Dana Schmalz Continue reading >>
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16 December 2024
EU Citizens’ Right to Join Political Parties
The Maastricht Treaty formally created the concept of citizenship of the European Union, based upon holding the nationality of a Member State. Now provided for in Article 20 TFEU, EU citizenship includes the right for EU citizens to vote in municipal and European Parliament elections in a Member State other than that of their nationality on the same basis as nationals. Two recent judgments by the Court of Justice enhance the role of EU citizenship as regards political rights, but its recognition of the importance of national identity in this area means that Member States can still place some limits on non-nationals’ role in politics. Continue reading >>03 September 2024
Falltür im Staatsangehörigkeitsrecht
Bereits seit geraumer Zeit besteht der Wille, das Staatsangehörigkeitsrecht zu instrumentalisieren, um Menschen über ihre doppelte Staatsangehörigkeit loszuwerden. Aber auch die etablierten Volksparteien diskutieren offen darüber, wie sich kriminalpolitische Probleme staatsangehörigkeitsrechtlich lösen lassen könnten. Auch wenn mit der Novellierung des Staatsangehörigkeitsrechts im März 2024 die meisten Verlustgründe aus dem StAG gestrichen wurden, bleibt mit dem Terrorismusverlustgrund § 28 Abs. 1 Nr. 2 StAG eine Regelung übrig, die hohes Diskriminierungspotenzial aufweist. Continue reading >>
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28 July 2024
Jewish Past, Mnemonic Constitutionalism and the Politics of Citizenship
For this symposium essay, I will focus on the Jewish past, with its tragedies extending beyond and preceding the Holocaust as a master narrative unfolded by mnemonic constitutionalism. Specifically, I will reflect on how citizenship laws – as the foundational cluster of constitutional law in liberal democracies, including the countries without a formal constitution – have built constitutional ontologies upon the Jewish past and the “never again” theme through three central examples involving “Jewish citizens”. Continue reading >>
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07 May 2024
3½ Myths about EU law on Citizenship for Sale
The sale of national and European Union citizenship understandably remains highly controversial. It seems arbitrary, perhaps even abject, to grant nationality in exchange for a monetary investment, when most people must wait years and overcome considerable hurdles before they can naturalize. As evidenced by three recent posts on the Verfassungsblog by Joseph H.H. Weiler, Merijn Chamon, and Lorin-Johannes Wagner, this question continues to divide EU law scholars. It is also a question that is still plagued by several myths about how EU law and, relatedly, international law, apply to CBI practices. This post discusses 3½ such myths. Continue reading >>
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15 April 2024
A Rejoinder to Citizenship for Sale (Commission v Malta)
In his piece on Citizenship for Sale of 14 April 2024, Joseph Weiler criticizes the European Commission's infringement procedure against Malta's golden passport scheme. He names three reasons why the Commission should (or could) not have brought the case and the Court should not uphold it. While the present reply does not argue that the Court will necessarily find in the Commission's favour, the Commission's legal claim and strategy do not seem to be as (constitutionally) problematic as Weiler make them out to be. Continue reading >>14 April 2024