| Over the course of the past half century, an extensive set of supranational rights has been created in Europe. These rights extend entitlements to individuals and impose obligations on states. In the past decade, these rights have come to be situated in a language traditionally reserved for describing the relationship between the individual and the state: the language of citizenship. States have historically been defined in terms of insiders (citizens) and outsiders (foreigners). The new supranational rights supersede this traditional distinction by reducing or even removing the ability of European states to discriminate between their own citizens and those of other EU member states.; EU citizenship represents a fundamental transformation of state sovereignty, a transformation particularly evident in the realm of free movement. Nothing in international law requires a state to automatically allow citizens of another state to reside on its territory and to grant them wide-ranging civic, political, and social rights. Within the European Union, however, a system of directly effective rights for individuals has developed which not only provides Europeans with choices about where to live and work but also forces EU member states to respect those choices. If sovereignty implies the ability of states to exclude foreigners, then the development of these supranational rights implies a distinct rupture with the historical tradition of state sovereignty. Yet freedom of movement for individuals is only the key first step and most visible manifestation of the emerging European rights regime. This dissertation explains the development of citizenship of the European Union and advances more general hypotheses about the evolution of supranational rights. |
