In Modern Law
Renunciation of citizenship is particularly relevant in cases of multiple citizenship, given that additional citizenships may be acquired automatically and may be undesirable. Many countries have pragmatic policies that recognize the often arbitrary nature of citizenship claims of other countries and negative consequences, such as loss of security clearance, can mostly be expected only for actively exercising foreign citizenship, for instance by obtaining a foreign passport. People from some countries renounce their citizenship to avoid compulsory military service. However, some people may wish to be free even of the purely theoretical obligations and appearance of dual loyalty that another citizenship implies. In 2006, Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, prompted by an international travel requirement in the U.S., renounced the US citizenship he had acquired by birth. He said, "What I want is the right not to have an American passport." Another example may be political refugees who would wish to renounce allegiance to the country from which they escaped.
Read more about this topic: Renunciation Of Citizenship
Famous quotes containing the words modern and/or law:
“All that remains to the mother in modern consumer society is the role of scapegoat; psychoanalysis uses huge amounts of money and time to persuade analysands to foist their problems on to the absent mother, who has no opportunity to utter a word in her own defence. Hostility to the mother in our societies is an index of mental health.”
—Germaine Greer (b. 1939)
“An endless imbroglio
Is law and the world,—
Then first shalt thou know,
That in the wild turmoil,
Horsed on the Proteus,
Thou ridest to power,
And to endurance.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)