Toothless European Citizenship / Šimon Uradnik

That relation, thus, the direct bond consists of two components, namely, the autonomous form and the nonvicarious content , as is depicted in Figure IV. The direct bond thus comprises both of the components as a whole. Notwithstanding the fact that the content and the form might exist on their own, only with their mutual presence and existence does that become the direct bond. Each component represents one element of the direct bond, which is described subsequently. For the sake of illustration, the direct bond can be likened to a full tube between an entity and an individual. The tube itself, as a solid and stable boundary, represents the autonomous form of citizenship, whilst the filling of the tube — what flows inside the tube symbolises the citizenship’s nonvicarious content. As was aboveindicated, each complement, the nonvicarious content as well as the autonomous form, gives rise to one element of the direct bond — the directness and the bond . On the one side, the nonvicarious content as the filling of the tube is in every particular right, which directly emanates from an entity towards an individual, and every particular duty, which directly flows from an individual towards an entity. Therefore, the nonvicarious content materialises in the element of the directness . Furthermore, if it were only for the filling, there would be a content disorderly flowing between an individual and an entity without any boundary. 158 On the other side, there is the autonomous form, the tube which connects or, more suitably in this context, bonds an entity towards an individual and vice versa, and which begins at an individual and ends at an entity and vice versa. Hence, the autonomous form materialises in the element of the bond . The question of whether the bond — a form could exist on its own, without a content, might be more than noteworthy; the existence would probably be imaginable only if citizenship under these circumstances were a kind of status without any rights or duties conferred on it. However, in terms of citizenship or nationality, such a depletive concept would be hard to find since its purpose would be primarily symbolic. 159 paper on reflections on how much Union citizenship is similar to nationality, mainly from the perspective of international law. To that effect, see William Thomas Worster, ‘The Emergence of EU Citizenship as a Direct Legal Bond with the Union’ (2018) Social Science Research Network accessed 18 th April 2023. 158 And yet even that possibility is not unthinkable; to that effect, see note 38 above. 159 Nonetheless, the more-or-less form without the content occurred in Australia in 1948 when the Aborigines were granted the status of Australian citizens, yet they have not been given any rights attached to that citizenship. For this purpose, see John Chesterman and Brian Galligan, ‘The Slow Path to Civil Rights’ Citizens without Rights: Aborigines and Australian Citizenship (Cambridge University Press 1997).

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