Foreword to Ben Herzog's Book, Revoking Citizenship
Florida International University Legal Studies Research Paper No. 20-15
Ben Herzog & Ediberto Román, Revoking Citizenship: Expatriation in America from the Colonial Era to the War on Terror (NYU Press 2017)
4 Pages Posted: 25 Sep 2020
Date Written: 2015
Abstract
Though considered the most basic of all rights—citizenship—is also known as the most fundamental of rights, the right to have rights. Despite what appears to be its central and foundational nature, the concept is under fire. Such a state of affiars seems odd, as one would naturally think that a concept so fundamental and so closely associated with democratic order would not be subject of debate. Indeed, it is a term that dates back to the Roman-Greco era, where giants like Aristotle extolled its virtues as well as its importance to democratic forms of government. It is a concept with countless examples of struggles for its attainment throughout the annals of time, with peoples fighting to acquire this all-important status, and more to preserve it. Indeed, the very thought of citizenship evokes an association with equality as well as the belief in the superiority of democracies over other forms of government. Unquestionable historical examples of these efforts are both vivid and sobering: from the over century long suffrage struggle of women’s rights in the U. S., to the current domestic civil rights struggle over marriage equality. People live and fight for the status that citizenship is supposed to provide.
Keywords: Dual Citizenship, book review, revoking citizenship, citizenship
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