The Prior Question: What Do We Need State Citizenship for?

Abstract

In his kick-off contribution, Costica Dumbrava offers a threefold critique of ius sanguinis as a norm of citizenship acquisition. I share the scepticism expressed by various contributors to this Forum. However rather than address Dumbrava’s critique head on, I suggest that the kind of critique of ius sanguinis that he offers gets things moving askew from the start. When asking what citizenship rules we ought to endorse or reject, we ought to begin with a prior question: ‘what do we need state citizenship rules for?’