Should Citizenship Be for Sale?

Ayelet Shachar 

University of Toronto - Faculty of Law

Rainer Baubock 

European University Institute
January 2014

Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies Research Paper No. 2014/01 
Abstract:      

On 12 November 2013 the Maltese Parliament decided to offer Maltese and European citizenship at the price of € 650,000, but implementation of the law has been postponed due to strong domestic and international critiques. On 23 December, the Maltese government announced significant amendments, including a higher total amount of € 1,150,000, part of which has to be invested in real estate and government bonds. Several other European states have adopted ‘golden passport’ programmes. Should citizenship be for sale? In November 2013 EUDO CITIZENSHIP invited Ayelet Shachar of the University of Toronto Law School to open a debate on these controversial policies. Twelve authors have contributed short commentaries, most of which refer to the initial law adopted by the Maltese Parliament. An executive summary by Rainer Bauböck provides an overview over the main questions raised in our forum. For further information on investor citizenship programmes see Jelena Dzankic’s EUDO CITIZENSHIP working paper on the topic and consult the news section of our observatory.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 46

Keywords: Citizenship acquisition, investor citizenship programmes, European citizenship, commodification, Malta

Full text available at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2380665