A Duty Free Europe? What's Wrong with Kochenov's Account of EU Citizenship Rights

European Law Journal, Vol. 20, No. 4, July 2014, pp. 482-498.

15 Pages Posted: 2 Sep 2015

See all articles by Richard Bellamy

Richard Bellamy

University College London - Department of Political Science

Date Written: July 2014

Abstract

This article disputes the recent argument of Dimitry Kochenov advocating an ‘EU Citizenship without Duties’. His thesis rests on an untenable form of philosophical anarchism that overlooks the role played by our political obligations to state structures in securing rights. At best, his argument suggests a ‘thin’ form of EU citizenship that allows European citizens to choose which of the Member States they wish to become morally obliged to. A ‘thicker’ form of EU level citizenship could only arise by creating civic obligations at the EU level, the position he rejects. To the extent certain Court of Justice judgments in this area reflect parallel reasoning to Kochenov’s, they too suffer from a similar failure to appreciate the role of civic duties to particular Member States (or eventually the EU) in creating and securing the status of citizens as equal rights bearers.

Keywords: citizenship, EU, rights, duties, philosophical anarchism

Suggested Citation

Bellamy, Richard, A Duty Free Europe? What's Wrong with Kochenov's Account of EU Citizenship Rights (July 2014). European Law Journal, Vol. 20, No. 4, July 2014, pp. 482-498., Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2653734

Richard Bellamy (Contact Author)

University College London - Department of Political Science ( email )

Gower Street
London
United Kingdom

HOME PAGE: http://iris.ucl.ac.uk/iris/browse/profile?upi=RBELL43

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