Toothless European Citizenship / Šimon Uradnik

sanguinis where there is no bloodline to find. 186 To underline, ius soli in conjunction with ius familias can be defined as an ascending instrument primarily for individuals to apply for a state’s nationality. On the other side, there lies the principle of ius meriti — a legal title of acquisition ‘based on an individual’s exceptional abilities and talent’. 187 By this means, individuals acquire nationality as a result of the state’s interests in it and in them; hence, it is chiefly a descending instrument of a state to attract and to grant nationality for reasonable achievement in science, arts or scholarship. 188 Under this rule can also be subsumed ius doni , a peculiar approach whereby the ‘individual’s exceptional abilities’ are examined with regard to the amount of wealth that an individual is willing to ‘donate’, or rather ‘invest’. 189 In certain cases, the acquisition ex actu may be possible also in a simpler form, in the form of the declaration of option. This optional acquisition 190 relies mainly on the rules of ius sanguinis and ius soli ; individuals are under precise requirements entitled to obtain nationality without further procedural acts, unlike in the case of naturalisation, as a result of their specific legal status, historical events, family ties or even their previous possession of the nationality of that state. 191 Bauböck and Irene Bloemraad and Maarten Peter Vink (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Citizenship (Oxford University Press 2017) 155. 186 Such as in cases of international adoptions, a child following their parents to the state the nationality of which they possess, or simple international marriages. For that purpose, see Irene Bloemraad and Alicia Sheares, ‘Understanding Membership in a World of Global Migration: (How) Does Citizenship Matter?’ (2017) 51/4 International Migration Review 829 accessed 10 th May 2023. 187 Ashley Mantha-Hollands and Jelena Dzankic, ‘Ties that bind and unbind: charting the boundaries of European Union citizenship’ (2022) 49/9 Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 2095. 188 To that effect, see Christian Joppke, ‘Earned Citizenship’ (2021) 61/3 European Journal of Sociology 1 accessed 10 th May 2023. 189 For this purpose, see Christian Joppke, ‘The instrumental turn of citizenship’ (2018) 45/6 Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 864-867 accessed 10 th May 2023. 190 As is categorised by H. van Eijken and P. Phoa; to that effect, see Hanneke van Eijken and Pauline Phoa, ‘Chapter 5: Nationality and EU citizenship: strong tether or slipping anchor?’ in Civil Rights and EU Citizenship (Edward Elgar Publishing 2018) 104. 191 For a wider overview of requirements for the declaration of option, see Gerard René de Groot, ‘Conditions for Acquisition of Nationality by Operation of Law or by Lodging a Declaration of Option’ (2002) 9/2 Maastricht Journal of European and Comparative Law 144−154 accessed 10 th May 2023.

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