Some Reflections on Citizenship by Investment - A Comparative Overview of the European and International Approach

Abstract

Citizenship can be defined as the link established between the citizen and the state and this mechanism has become legitimate in time, being frequently impacted by a multitude of factors. Step by step, the concept gained multiple valences stemming also from the efforts individuals constantly made in order to create bonds with various states, even if that meant using more or less conventional levers, different from the so-called classic ones, which envisioned a genuine link with the state whose citizenship one was interested in acquiring. Practically, this desideratum was tangible due to the advent of the pecuniary factor whose status and emergence in this particular domain raised controversies. Often criticized or considered to be a facile instrument used for gaining a certain status, completely opposed to the one who considered the prevalence of rights and freedoms, the financial criterion reached the position of a powerful accelerator towards the citizenship of a state. In order to have an objective approach as far as the mechanism of granting citizenship on a financial basis is concerned, as well as to be able to pinpoint the potential vulnerabilities of such a system, it is of paramount importance to identify the premises that led to these ways of granting citizenship. This way, this paper aims at highlighting the main theoretical paradigm, as well as the practical implications of citizenship by investment. Consequently, I try to understand not only the doctrinal features but also the philosophical and empirical substratum which lies behind this approach. From the debut of the notion of ius pecuniae and its juxtaposition with a profoundly anchored in terms of human rights and freedoms legal framework in the matter of granting and respectively acquiring citizenship, the paper aims at identifying the causes which eventually led to this initiative and what actually makes it gain so much credit nowadays, taking into consideration the fact that citizenship by investment is still an alternative in many states worldwide. Lastly, this paper also aims at mapping the exact financial criteria used for granting citizenship “through investments” in Europe as well as internationally, by also noticing which are the current trends in this matter, especially as far as the level of tolerance is concerned but also in terms of how these programs developed in time in some states which practice this mechanism.