Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
  1. Home
  2. Search

Refine search

Refine search

Access:
Content type:
Publication date:
Apply   From and To filters
Subject: Show more
Journals Show more
Publishers: Show more
Societies Show more
Series: Show more
Collections: Show more

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
Cancel
×

1 results

  • 4 - Sovereign Persons

  • from Part II - Mise-en-scène: The International Legal World, 1919–1939
  • Christopher A. Casey, University of California, Berkeley
  • Book:
    Nationals Abroad
    Published online:
    29 June 2020
    Print publication:
    02 July 2020, pp 105-133

  • Summary

    In the aftermath of World War I, some politicians, scholars, and lawyers argued that individuals ought to be subjects of international law and bear rights within the international order. With the collapse of the Russian Empire and the onset of revolution, hundreds of thousands of Russians found themselves effectively stateless. Without a state to protect them, these Russians had no identity documents and no effective nationality. The League of Nations and the International Labor Organization worked with various states to create the first refugee passport system. However, unlike today’s system that is based upon someone’s “well-founded fear” of persecution, eligibility for refugee status in the interwar period was based, in part, on one’s former nationality. Even refugees couldn’t escape the tyranny of nationality as the fundamental classification of the individual in the international realm.