Spiro On Dual Citizenship

Peter J. Spiro, Temple University School of Law, has published At Home in Two Countries: The Past and Future of Dual Citizenship (Introduction) in At Home in Two Countries (NYU Press, 2016). Here is the abstract.

How did dual citizenship evolve from traitorous to trendy? Dual nationality was once considered an offense against nature, an abomination on the order of bigamy. It was the stuff of titanic battles between the United States and European sovereigns. As those conflicts dissipated, dual citizenship continued to be the object of loyalty and misplaced security concerns. Only recently has the status largely shed the opprobrium to which it was once attached. The first monograph on the status in several generations, AT HOME IN TWO COUNTRIES charts the transformed understanding of dual citizenship from strong disfavor to general acceptance. Today, the state lacks both the capacity and the incentive to suppress the status as citizenship becomes more like other forms of membership. Dual citizenship allows many to formalize sentimental attachments. For others, it’s a new way to game the international system. The introduction opens with the author’s own experience acquiring dual citizenship. It then outlines the book’s consideration of dual citizenship in historical and contemporary perspective.

Download the introduction from SSRN at the link.