Statelessness: The Enigma of the International Community

(Paperback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

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 judgments 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 states 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.

Reviews

Conklins book will be well received. Conklins passion for the subject is clear and his points are well-supported. [He] provides numerous, often moving examples of those who are stateless [and] The sources he uses are wide and varied -- Taryn Marks * DipLawMatic Dialogues *
...William Conklin, in his monograph Statelessness: The Enigma of an International Community, opens the proverbial can of worms as he tackles some of the thorniest issues in contemporary international law...He presents a methodological and meticulously crafted argument that requires the reader to engage with the content from cover to cover... -- Andra le Roux-Kemp * Allegralaboratory.net *
The analysis of the nature of legal obligation in two international communities based on different legal bonds provides a deep understanding of the enigma of stateless. -- Rokeya Chowdhury * Revue quebecoise de droit international *

Author Bio

William E Conklin is a Professor in the Faculty of Law and Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Windsor.