The project has five significant signs of progress beyond expected results:
Genealogy of citizenship: The group has assembled a team of distinguished scholars, mostly historians, to identify historical turning-moments (e.g. critical junctures, phases, events, cases, texts) that have profoundly shaped the development of the boundaries of citizenship and its contemporary meanings. 15 turning moments have been identified thus far: (1-2) Urban and municipal citizenship in the ancient world: Classical Athens and the Roman Empire, (3) Christian legacy and influence; (4) Medieval and early modern citizenship in European communes; (5) Feudal citizenship; (6-7) Modern Empires and the colonial world; (8) The French Revolution; (9) Constitutionalizing citizenship; (10) Global wars; (11] Gender equality; (12) Citizenship in the post-colonial states; (13) Internationalization of citizenship law; (14) Europeanization of citizenship; (15) The emergence of a “digital citizenship.” The study shows how different societies shaped the institution of citizenship and its boundaries by developing inclusion and exclusion rules and practices.
The future of citizenship: The original proposal asked to learn about contemporary challenges of citizenship by looking at the past—historical perspectives. During the research, it has become evident that one can also learn about contemporary citizenship challenges by looking at the future— such as challenges and opportunities brought about by emerging technologies. Thus, IC-LAW has established a new project, CitTech, which evaluates the changes brought about by new technologies to citizenship values and institutions. Topics included, e.g. cybernetic, algorithmic, cloud, and genetic citizenship.
Global Compact of Citizenship: IC-LAW has conducted several studies whose goal, eventually, is to become the world’s first proposal for a Global Compact on Citizenship. Empirically, it has constructed a global database on conditions for citizenship acquisition and loss and indexing different forms of discrimination on selected countries; conceptually, IC-LAW is examining citizenship narratives on national, subnational, and supranational levels; normatively, IC-LAW is developing a guiding principle for acquisition & loss of citizenship, a revised version of the genuine link principle in international law.
Urban citizenship: In the course of the research, it has become clear that subnational categories of citizenship—in particular, the notion of urban citizenship in mega-cities—is a central subject for any future development of international citizenship law. In late 2018, IC-LAW jointly established the “Transnational Platform on Cities, Migration, and Citizenship” with 20 participating institutions, academic and think-tank, from all over the world (e.g. NYC, Johannesburg, Melbourne, Toronto, Istanbul, Nairobi, London). Research topics included digital citizenship in megacities, climate migration in cities, mobility and urban governance, and new narratives repository on cities and mobility.
Majorities, minorities, and nationhood: In April 2019, IC-LAW co-hosted a conference on majority and minority rights, a topic which is at the core of citizenship tensions. It seeks to understand intercultural tensions between majority and minority groups, the expressions of these tensions, the moral and legal challenges they pose to theories of democracy and citizenship and justice. Thus far, the research has yielded an edited volume, “Majorities, Minorities, and the Future of Nationhood” (Cambridge University Press), with 12 chapters written by some of the most distinguished researchers in the field.
