Toothless European Citizenship / Šimon Uradnik

descriptive approach to the history of the status of Union citizenship, however, with numerous analytical conclusions based on them. Chapter 2 is dedicated to the focal point of this monograph, ergo, to the essences of Union citizenship in the form of the genuine link or the direct bond. The first one to be assessed is the former, where, on the basis of the judgement of the International Court of Justice in Case Nottebohm, the author outlines a framework for the examination of the presence of the genuine link in citizenship of the Union. That develops two prerequisites to be able to claim that the factual relation in the form of the genuine link is the essence of Union citizenship, id est , the mutual societal attachment and shared political interests of the ‘European people’. The second is the author’s developed concept and theory of the direct bond, which finds its grounds in the ruling of the Nottebohm case also. The author introduces this theory standing on two elements, id est , the directness and the bond. The element of the directness comes into being with the existence of the nonvicarious content of citizenship — rights and duties that are nonvicarious by any other, secondary, entity; thus, it can exist without any intermediate subject. The element of the bond emerges with the existence of the autonomous form of citizenship. If these two elements are present together, such a legal relationship, as might Union citizenship be, would be of the quality to result in the legal relation in this form of the direct bond. Nonetheless, this assessment is subsequently conducted in the two following chapters. In terms of the methodology, in the first section devoted to the factual relation and the genuine link, the author analytically develops from the judgement in Case of Nottebohm the framework for the assessment, which is subsequently grounded on the empirical data from the Eurobarometer. The second section, with the direct bond in the focal point, is built upon a legal-analytical approach, whereby the author constructs categories to examine two elements of the direct bond. Chapter 3 is the one which examines the element of the bond; thus, whether it is bearable to claim that the legal character of the form, the status of Union citizenship is of the autonomous character. In the first section, the author describes the origin of the status of Union citizenship in the nationality of a Member State through an endemic concept of ius tractum developed by D. Kochenov; 12 which means that, 12 Dimitry Kochenov, ‘Ius Tractum of Many Faces: European Citizenship and the Difficult Relationship between Status and Rights’ (2009) 15/2 Columbia Journal of European Law 181 accessed 17 th June 2023.

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