This chapter concerns state succession, the process by which a state may succeed to the treaties, assets, debts and responsibilities of a predecessor state. The relationship between continuity and succession of states is not always easy to determine, as some states may be deemed to be continuations of the earlier state in a slightly different form rather than a totally new state. Examples covered here include Russia, Yugoslavia and Germany. The question of succession to treaties is then considered with an examination of the different kinds of treaties, such as multilateral treaties, bilateral treaties, human rights treaties and territorial treaties. The various effects upon such treaties of how the succession is characterised, from absorption and merger to cession of part of a state to another, to the creation of a new state, are examined. The chapter then turns to other branches of succession, from succession to membership of international organisations to succession to assets, including archives, and debts and succession to private rights, nationality and responsibility.

This chapter explores the legacies of indenture for international law in Asia through a survey of the existing scholarship and points to new directions for research. Focusing on indentured labor from India, which comprised the majority of labourers recruited under this system in the nineteenth and early twentieth century, it shows how indenture shifted definitions of emigrants and foreigners, shaped discourses on welfare in migration, and left its mark on international relations as they emerged in the aftermath of the two world wars. The chapter also discusses how questions of nationality and citizenship in the postcolonial period often overlooked the plight of the descendents of indenture in Asia, and concludes with speculations on what the new form of indenture is and the limits of drawing these historical analogies.

Chapter 6 analyses how legal procedures were included in the Paris Peace Treaties in order to solve one of the most sensitive and politically controversial questions of the post-war order: the payment of reparations from former Central Power governments or individuals to Allied individuals. In accordance with the peace treaties, 39 Mixed Arbitral Tribunals were established after 1920 to decide on private Allied claims for damages that had occurred during the war due to acts by former Central Power governments or individuals. The fact that an international court system permitted private individuals to raise claims against foreign governments was seen as a radical novelty; and even more so since tens of thousands of claimants throughout Europe and beyond attempted to receive compensation for claimed losses. From an Allied point of view, these new tribunals served justice, deemed to be at the core of the Paris Peace Treaties system. Yet, for the former Central Power governments, their legal advisers, and scholars, the Mixed Arbitral Tribunals were nothing but elaborate examples of victor’s justice characterized by unclear competences and applicable law.

David LaRocca’s chapter resituates Emerson’s 1856 book English Traits within Emerson’s transatlanticism, as well as within his intellectual, cultural, and historical moment. In particular, it analyzes and contextualizes Emerson’s comments on race in English Traits in relation to the formation of British and American national mythologies. As LaRocca argues, in contrast to less generous critics, Emerson is indeed egalitarian, his philosophy of the fluidity of identity brings him to a stance against definite identity distinctions, and English Traits does not praise Saxon whiteness but poetico-sociologically investigates the nation of England. What is more, Emerson’s interest was, in part, personal. He made English Traits a public statement that justified questions about his family tree and, in a larger domain, the way that New England was formed and informed by England, even while he pursued a broader view of human history – of whatever vintage – as inseparable from natural history.

The only form of knowledge about ethnicity that officially and permanently attaches to individuals in Kenya is the register of citizens kept by the National Registration Bureau, which issues ID cards. In this chapter, I briefly trace the history of the ID card in colonial labour control practices (not civil registration), but focus on the deeply ambiguous role of ethnicity in registration over recent years. I show how there is a disconnect between the lack of a place for ethnicity in law or regulation surrounding IDs, yet its continued presence in practice. I then examine several cases of minority ethnic community leaders engaged in what I call ‘code seeking’, where they successfully lobbied for recognition as ‘tribes of Kenya’ as a path to securing ID cards – de facto proof of citizenship for people otherwise stateless. However, I also show that other people, in this example, the Galje’el people, a sub-clan of Somalis, have not been and likely will not be successful with this strategy. This chapter draws our attention to the benefits of both classification and vagueness, while remaining vigilant about their risks.

This chapter traces how multinationals have historically navigated nationality-related challenges, adapting their strategies to evolving political, economic, and regulatory environments. It examines five key dimensions of nationality – corporate nationality, ownership nationality, home–host country relations, national management styles, and product perception – and their shifting importance over time. Early globalization fostered flexible corporate nationalities. However, World War I, rising economic nationalism, trade restrictions, and foreign direct investment regulations led multinationals to actively manage their corporate and ownership nationality. Regardless of increasing global economic integration since the 1970s, national affiliation remained relevant for market access, competitive advantage, and mitigating political risk. The aftermath of the global financial crisis, however, marked by renewed economic nationalism, prioritization of national interests, and identity politics as well as new geopolitical conflict created new nationality-related challenges.

This chapter explores Scotland’s relationship with utopia, arguing that this relationship is complicated by Scotland’s perceived peripheral, and potentially oppositional, identity within the United Kingdom. Twentieth-century Scottish fiction has often been reticent to engage with fully developed utopian paradigms, instead focusing on quotidian experience. However, utopian communities are also positioned as an opportunity to look beyond the nation to examine questions of individual and collective desire. The chapter focuses on three main strands of Scottish utopian fiction from the post-war to the present: the unusual emphasis on death and cyclical return in key utopian texts; utopian novels that explore communal life and homosociality; and queer works that employ storytelling as a utopian act. The texts discussed in this chapter reveal that in Scottish literature utopia is not located in some far-off future but, rather, operates within the continuity created by shared narratives of identity, community, and desire. Examining these themes, the chapter concludes that Scottish utopian fiction is more varied than previous accounts have noted.

Culture can be a source of identity, including topics such as nationality, religion, race, and personal background. Culture can be an artistic inspiration, which can encompass many dimensions. Artists can want to share and teach, to process controversial social issues, and to engage in self-discovery. In this chapter, artists share how their culture shapes their creative output. For some, art enables them to address difficult topics that might not otherwise see the light of day.

This chapter embarks on a rigorous examination of the evolving social contracts within the Gulf states delineating their foundational role in facilitating the region’s pursuit of decarbonization, climate change adaptation, and socioeconomic diversification. The analysis delves into the intricate web of socioeconomic, political, national security, and sociocultural transformations inextricably linked to the ongoing economic restructuring within the region and assesses how these countries navigate this multifaceted transition amid a complex interplay of domestic and global pressures.

This chapter argues that naturalization, the process of transforming aliens into subjects through law, was a crucial process in eighteenth-century law and literature. The attempted passage of several naturalization bills across the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries generated conflicting accounts about whether nationality could be a fictional process. Samuel Richardson and Maria Edgeworth take up these conflicting accounts in their novels. In Sir Charles Grandison (1753–54), Richardson upholds the traditional view, which considered naturalization to be part of a return to an original common human nature expressed in natural law. In Harrington (1817), by contrast, Maria Edgeworth endorses a newer, Lockean, contractual and voluntarist approach: the idea that naturalization could be achieved through a Parliamentary statute without the necessity of natural law. These case studies reveal how novelists responded and contributed to naturalization’s transformation from a supposedly natural process to an explicitly fictional process.

This chapter examines the treatment of organized migration in France following the signing of the Treaty of Rome. In the same way that workers of Algerian origin were denied the right to free movement as workers, workers from the former colonies of the French imperial space were subjected to treatment reflecting their former status as indigenous workers. One illustration is the case of the Chibani, a group of older North African workers hired by the thousands by the French national railway company (SNCF) in the three decades following the Second World War. Throughout their careers, these workers had an insecure status under which they were not entitled to the same treatment as their French counterparts. Key to their discriminatory treatment was the so-called nationality clause, designed to establish a national preference. By making workers’ enjoyment of basic social rights dependent on their nationality, this discriminatory system put in place by the SNCF with the active support of the French and Moroccan governments persisted even as the European Convention on Human Rights, the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU, and the Race Equality Directive entered into force in France.

Research on rap music in Germany has focused on questions of transnationalism, ethnicity and gender. This chapter advances studies of German rap through an analysis of the rap song and music video “Ich bin Schwarz” (I am Black, 2016) by the popular female rap duo SXTN. Drawing on intersectional, feminist, and hip-hop studies scholarship, we conduct a close reading of the visuals, lyrics, and signifying practices that are mediated in the cultural text. We argue that “Ich bin Schwarz” promotes a new version of a self-empowered, humorous, and unapologetic Black female German identity by remixing the popular German music genre Neue Deutsche Welle (New German Wave), subverting racist and sexist imaginations of Afrodiasporic womanhood, and continuing hip-hop’s political legacy against right-wing extremism in Germany. Ultimately, “Ich bin Schwarz” contributes to a growing body of performances in rap music and larger popular culture that destabilise white-dominated notions of German national identity.

“Where are you really from?” This chapter takes a closer look at corporate nationality, the key element in geopolitical risk. Notwithstanding the challenges in defining a global company’s nationality, a firm’s country of origin will shape how it is treated in global markets. The chapter examines how corporate nationality shapes the manner in which companies compete, the resources they have access to, and whether it will be a source of advantage or disadvantage in global operations. For managers, an important question is whether they can shape others’ perceptions of their company’s nationality. Different approaches including masking, localization, transfer of control rights, and partnerships with foreign firms are discussed.

This chapter argues that while great strides have been made to humanise the law of diplomatic protection, its practice in the courtroom is not in alignment with this as the protected individual does not participate in proceedings. It first dismantles the famous Mavrommatis fiction and argues that other conditions for diplomatic protection (such as nationality and the exhaustion of local remedies) and its features (such as state discretion and state responsibility) have been increasingly humanised to place emphasis on the individual. Second, it analyses the case law to show how the individual does not participate in proceedings at the Peace Palace. Finally, it provides suggestions to advocate for stronger procedural participation for the injured individual in cases of diplomatic protection at the ICJ.