Statelessness : the enigma of an international community / William E. Conklin.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [321]-358) and index.

Introduction -- Two international communities -- The discursive contingency of an international community -- The consequences of statelessness -- The reserved domain for the treaty right to nationality -- Customary norms and a right to nationality -- The legal bond -- Does a stateless person have a country? -- The state obligation to protect stateless persons -- The international community as a whole -- Conclusion. Introduction I. Two Communities II. Who is Stateless? III. The Extent of Statelessness IV. Efforts to Eradicate Statelessness V. Legal Obligation and an International Community VI. My Approach VII. Overview of the Book 1. Two International Communities I. What is an International Community? II. The International Community as the Aggregate of the Wills of States III. Destabilization of the International Community as the Aggregated Wills of State Members IV. Legal Obligation and Statelessness V. Conclusion 2. The Discursive Contingency of an International Community I. The Emergence of an Early International Community of States II. The Role of the Natural Person in the Early Modern International Community III. The Bounded Residuary IV. The Emergence of the Judicial Doctrine of Reserved Domain V. The Content of the Reserved Domain VI. Conclusion 3. The Consequences of Statelessness I. Consequences of the 'Operation' of Nationality Law II. The Absence of Legal Protection III. The Consequences for Three Groups IV. Social, Economic and Psychological Consequences V. Conclusion 4. The Reserved Domain for the Treaty Right to Nationality I. Introduction II. The Statelessness Treaties III. The Human Rights Treaties IV. The Priority of the Reserved Domain over the Right to Nationality V. The Limitations Clauses VI. The Non-derogation Clauses VII. Conclusion 5. Customary Norms and a Right to Nationality I. A Sense of Obligation II. State Practices III. The Problem of an Empty International Community IV. The International Community as a Whole V. Conclusion 6. The Legal Bond I. Legal Obligation II. The Discursive Struggle III. The Legal Bond as a Social Bond: Nottebohm IV. The Discursive Tradition of Effective Nationality V. Evidence of Social Bonds as Legal Bond VI. The Judicial Scrutiny of Social Relationships VII. Conclusion 7. Does a Stateless Person have a Country? I. Habitual Residence II. One's Own Country as the Place of One's Social Bonding III. Conclusion 8. The State Obligation to Protect Stateless Persons I. Legal Obligation and the Aggregated International Community II. The Displacement of the Boundary III. The Role of the Courts with Regard to Stateless Persons IV. What is 'the Operation of Its Law'? V. The Legal Obligation to Protect Stateless Persons VI. Conclusion 9. The International Community as a Whole I. The Character of the International Community as a Whole II. A Community III. The Existence Conditions of the International Community as a Whole IV. Legal Objectivity V. Legal Subjectivity VI. Harm to Stateless Persons as Harm to the International Community as a Whole VII. Conclusion Conclusion I. The Territorial Knowledge of Legal Space II. The Obligatory Character of Nationality Law III. The International Community as a Whole

'Statelessness' is a legal status denoting lack of any nationality, a status whereby the otherwise normal link between an individual and a state is absent. The increasingly widespread problem of statelessness has profound legal, social, economic and psychological consequences but also gives rise to the paradox of an international community that claims universal standards for all natural persons while allowing its Member States to allow statelessness to occur. In this powerfully argued book, Conklin critically evaluates traditional efforts to recognise and reduce statelessness. The problem, he argues, rests in the obligatory nature of law, domestic or international. By closely analysing a broad spectrum of court and tribunal judgements from many jurisdictions, Conklin explains how confusion has arisen between two discourses as to the nature of the international community. One discourse, a surface discourse, describes a community in which international law justifies a state's freedom to confer, withdraw or withhold nationality. This international community incorporates state freedom over nationality matters, risking statelessness. The other discourse, an inner discourse, highlights a legal bond of socially experienced relationships. Such a bond, judicially referred to as 'effective nationality', is binding upon all states, and where such a bond exists, harm to a stateless person represents harm to the international community as a whole.