Today the terms citizenship and nationality
both refer to the national state. In a technical
legal sense, while essentially the same
concept, each term reflects a different legal
framework. Both identify the legal status of
an individual in terms of state membership.
But citizenship is largely confined to the
national dimension, while nationality refers to
the international legal dimension in the
context of an interstate system. The legal
status entails the specifics of whom the state
recognizes as a citizen and the formal basis
for the rights and responsibilities of the
individual in relation to the state. International
law affirms that each state may determine
who will be considered a citizen of that state.1
Domestic laws about who is a citizen vary
significantly across states and so do the definitions
of what it entails to be a citizen (see
various chapters in this volume). Even within
Europe, let alone worldwide, there are marked
differences in how citizenship is articulated
and hence how non-citizens are defined.