Linda Bosniak
Biographic Data
| ID | 767904 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Linda Bosniak |
| GIVEN NAMES | Linda |
| FAMILY NAME | Bosniak |
| SIGNATURE | BOSNIAK L |
| AFFILIATIONS | Rutgers Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-8208-9472 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 83 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 16 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1991 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Distilling Solidarity
In the aftermath of the 2018 migrant caravans, the Mexican government arrested two migrants’ rights activists, 1 but not because they gave food or donated clothes to the caravaneros . The transgressive nature of their activism consisted of walking and organizing alongside people whose presence in the country was unauthorized. They were charged with smuggling-related crimes; but they were really “guilty” of solidarity. In this essay, we outline wh…
Citizenship and Bleakness
Responding to the editors’ prompt: ‘Has your relationship to the study of citizenship changed?’ I ask in this brief essay whether the language of citizenship possesses the resources to contend with the fairly dire set of circumstances we currently face. I suggest that the concept’s analytical and normative force relies on certain democratic and universalist horizons which are under siege or in some state of collapse, and I therefore wonder whethe…
Denationalisation, Assassination, Territory
Unlike the several liberal states Macklin cites which have already, or will soon, deploy citizenship revocation as an anti-terrorism mechanism, the United States is unlikely to implement similar policies. The U.S. Constitution has been interpreted to prohibit unilateral citizenship-stripping as a tool of governance. Instead, denationalisation via expatriation in the U.S. requires the individual to specifically consent to relinquish the status, an…
Immigration Ethics and the Context of Justice
By now one might hope that the robust body of theoretical work recently published on immigration ethics would have taken general political philosophy a long way from the prevailing Rawlsian-style insularity premise, according to which society is “a closed system isolated from other societies” into which persons “enter only by birth and exit only by death.” But there are still a great many political theorists whose focus is unreflectively endogeno…
Amnesty in immigration
Whether or not to grant ‘amnesty’ has been a contentious policy issue in a wide range of settings, from human rights violations to draft avoidance to library fines. Recently, the idea of amnesty has come to structure many debates over irregular immigration. While amnesty’s meaning is usually treated as self-evident, the term in fact signifies in a variety of normative directions. This article employs amnesty as an optic to examine accountability …
Arguing for Amnesty
This commentary addresses scholars and activists in liberal national states who advocate on behalf of undocumented immigrants, and offers some reflections on some of the intellectual and political challenges we encounter. I will suggest that the nature of our standard arguments on behalf of immigrants can sometimes give too much ground to current social conditions, and that we may – in our efforts to remain immediately policy-relevant – relinquis…
Citizenship in an Unequal World
We inhabit a thoroughly globalized world. People are increasingly and visibly connected by a “World Wide Web,” by a world market, and by universalist discourses of human rights and democracy. At the same time, full citizenship in a political community—and the rights conferred by such citizenship—is an exclusive status that remains, remarkably, tied to accidents of birth and historical circumstance. And what one has a right to—gainful employment, …
Persons and citizens in constitutional thought
The ideas of citizenship and personhood have an ambiguous relationship in constitutional thought. Often, they are understood as aligned, even as identical. Claims for " equal citizenship " and " democratic citizenship " are, in effect, claims on behalf of the rights and recognition of individuals qua persons. American constitutional theorist Kenneth Karst made this presumed equivalence plain when he wrote that the principle of equal citizenship p…
Being Here
In this Article, I examine a normative idea of territoriality which I call ethical territoriality. By ethical territoriality, I mean the conviction that rights and recognition should extend to all persons who are territorially present within the geographical space of a national state simply by virtue of that presence. I start by briefly reprising a claim I have developed elsewhere — that territorialism is preferable, on liberal democratic grounds…
Debating Immigration
Debating Immigration, first published in 2007, presents 18 original essays, written by some of the world's leading experts and pre-eminent academics, that explore the nuances of contemporary immigration and citizenship affecting the United States and Europe. The volume is organized around the following themes: religion and philosophy, law and policy, economics and demographics, race and ethnicity, and cosmopolitanism. Critical questions addressed…
The Citizen and the Alien
Despite its currency in scholarly thought and popular discourse, 'citizenship' is an elusive concept. The term designates a wide range of social institutions and practices and experiences, not all of which are compatible or in alignment. This text examines the interplay between these understandings of citizenship.
Universal Citizenship and the Problem of Alienage
Citizens, Strangers and In-Betweens
The Immigration System Today * Demographics * Public Attitudes * The Evolution of the Immigration Control System * The Current Legal Admissions System * The 1996 Legislation: Strengthening Enforcement * The 1997 Amnesty Part 2: The Courts and Immigration * 2. The Transformation of Immigration Law * The Classical Conception of Immigration Law * Pressures for Change * The Communitarian Conception of Immigration Law * The Future of Immigration Law *…
The Citizenship of Aliens
Cet article se penche sur la facon dont est traitee la citoyennete aux Etats-Unis, par la theorie politique d'une part et par les politiques concretes d'autre part. En examinant particulierement le type de citoyennete reserve aux etrangers, l'A. montre que la citoyennete aux Etats-Unis est traitee avant tout comme une question nationale et qu'il en resulte des formes d'exclusion pour les etrangers. L'A. plaide pour une reappropriation du terme ci…
Part II
Pursuant to the international legal principle of territorial sovereignty, states possess extensive authority to control the ingress of foreigners into their territory, but the presence of tens of millions of irregular migrants around the world reveals that states often fail to exercise such control in practice. As a result, international society is faced with the need to establish standards of appropriate treatment for irregular migrants who are …
Human Rights, State Sovereignty and the Protection of Undocumented Migrants under the International Migrant Workers Convention
Linda S. Bosniak, Human Rights, State Sovereignty and the Protection of Undocumented Migrants under the International Migrant Workers Convention, The International Migration Review, Vol. 25, No. 4, Special Issue: U.N. International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (Winter, 1991), pp. 737-770
The Citizen and the Alien
Despite its currency in scholarly thought and popular discourse, 'citizenship' is an elusive concept. The term designates a wide range of social institutions and practices and experiences, not all of which are compatible or in alignment. This text examines the interplay between these understandings of citizenship.
Human Rights, State Sovereignty and the Protection of Undocumented Migrants under the International Migrant Workers Convention
Linda S. Bosniak, Human Rights, State Sovereignty and the Protection of Undocumented Migrants under the International Migrant Workers Convention, The International Migration Review, Vol. 25, No. 4, Special Issue: U.N. International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (Winter, 1991), pp. 737-770
Citizenship in an Unequal World
We inhabit a thoroughly globalized world. People are increasingly and visibly connected by a “World Wide Web,” by a world market, and by universalist discourses of human rights and democracy. At the same time, full citizenship in a political community—and the rights conferred by such citizenship—is an exclusive status that remains, remarkably, tied to accidents of birth and historical circumstance. And what one has a right to—gainful employment, …
The Citizenship of Aliens
Cet article se penche sur la facon dont est traitee la citoyennete aux Etats-Unis, par la theorie politique d'une part et par les politiques concretes d'autre part. En examinant particulierement le type de citoyennete reserve aux etrangers, l'A. montre que la citoyennete aux Etats-Unis est traitee avant tout comme une question nationale et qu'il en resulte des formes d'exclusion pour les etrangers. L'A. plaide pour une reappropriation du terme ci…
Part II
Pursuant to the international legal principle of territorial sovereignty, states possess extensive authority to control the ingress of foreigners into their territory, but the presence of tens of millions of irregular migrants around the world reveals that states often fail to exercise such control in practice. As a result, international society is faced with the need to establish standards of appropriate treatment for irregular migrants who are …
Arguing for Amnesty
This commentary addresses scholars and activists in liberal national states who advocate on behalf of undocumented immigrants, and offers some reflections on some of the intellectual and political challenges we encounter. I will suggest that the nature of our standard arguments on behalf of immigrants can sometimes give too much ground to current social conditions, and that we may – in our efforts to remain immediately policy-relevant – relinquis…
Citizenship and Bleakness
Responding to the editors’ prompt: ‘Has your relationship to the study of citizenship changed?’ I ask in this brief essay whether the language of citizenship possesses the resources to contend with the fairly dire set of circumstances we currently face. I suggest that the concept’s analytical and normative force relies on certain democratic and universalist horizons which are under siege or in some state of collapse, and I therefore wonder whethe…
Immigration Ethics and the Context of Justice
By now one might hope that the robust body of theoretical work recently published on immigration ethics would have taken general political philosophy a long way from the prevailing Rawlsian-style insularity premise, according to which society is “a closed system isolated from other societies” into which persons “enter only by birth and exit only by death.” But there are still a great many political theorists whose focus is unreflectively endogeno…
Part II
Pursuant to the international legal principle of territorial sovereignty, states possess extensive authority to control the ingress of foreigners into their territory, but the presence of tens of millions of irregular migrants around the world reveals that states often fail to exercise such control in practice. As a result, international society is faced with the need to establish standards of appropriate treatment for irregular migrants who are …
Human Rights, State Sovereignty and the Protection of Undocumented Migrants under the International Migrant Workers Convention
Linda S. Bosniak, Human Rights, State Sovereignty and the Protection of Undocumented Migrants under the International Migrant Workers Convention, The International Migration Review, Vol. 25, No. 4, Special Issue: U.N. International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (Winter, 1991), pp. 737-770
The Citizenship of Aliens
Cet article se penche sur la facon dont est traitee la citoyennete aux Etats-Unis, par la theorie politique d'une part et par les politiques concretes d'autre part. En examinant particulierement le type de citoyennete reserve aux etrangers, l'A. montre que la citoyennete aux Etats-Unis est traitee avant tout comme une question nationale et qu'il en resulte des formes d'exclusion pour les etrangers. L'A. plaide pour une reappropriation du terme ci…
Universal Citizenship and the Problem of Alienage
Citizens, Strangers and In-Betweens
The Immigration System Today * Demographics * Public Attitudes * The Evolution of the Immigration Control System * The Current Legal Admissions System * The 1996 Legislation: Strengthening Enforcement * The 1997 Amnesty Part 2: The Courts and Immigration * 2. The Transformation of Immigration Law * The Classical Conception of Immigration Law * Pressures for Change * The Communitarian Conception of Immigration Law * The Future of Immigration Law *…
The Citizen and the Alien
Despite its currency in scholarly thought and popular discourse, 'citizenship' is an elusive concept. The term designates a wide range of social institutions and practices and experiences, not all of which are compatible or in alignment. This text examines the interplay between these understandings of citizenship.
Being Here
In this Article, I examine a normative idea of territoriality which I call ethical territoriality. By ethical territoriality, I mean the conviction that rights and recognition should extend to all persons who are territorially present within the geographical space of a national state simply by virtue of that presence. I start by briefly reprising a claim I have developed elsewhere — that territorialism is preferable, on liberal democratic grounds…
Debating Immigration
Debating Immigration, first published in 2007, presents 18 original essays, written by some of the world's leading experts and pre-eminent academics, that explore the nuances of contemporary immigration and citizenship affecting the United States and Europe. The volume is organized around the following themes: religion and philosophy, law and policy, economics and demographics, race and ethnicity, and cosmopolitanism. Critical questions addressed…
Persons and citizens in constitutional thought
The ideas of citizenship and personhood have an ambiguous relationship in constitutional thought. Often, they are understood as aligned, even as identical. Claims for " equal citizenship " and " democratic citizenship " are, in effect, claims on behalf of the rights and recognition of individuals qua persons. American constitutional theorist Kenneth Karst made this presumed equivalence plain when he wrote that the principle of equal citizenship p…
Citizenship in an Unequal World
We inhabit a thoroughly globalized world. People are increasingly and visibly connected by a “World Wide Web,” by a world market, and by universalist discourses of human rights and democracy. At the same time, full citizenship in a political community—and the rights conferred by such citizenship—is an exclusive status that remains, remarkably, tied to accidents of birth and historical circumstance. And what one has a right to—gainful employment, …
Arguing for Amnesty
This commentary addresses scholars and activists in liberal national states who advocate on behalf of undocumented immigrants, and offers some reflections on some of the intellectual and political challenges we encounter. I will suggest that the nature of our standard arguments on behalf of immigrants can sometimes give too much ground to current social conditions, and that we may – in our efforts to remain immediately policy-relevant – relinquis…
Amnesty in immigration
Whether or not to grant ‘amnesty’ has been a contentious policy issue in a wide range of settings, from human rights violations to draft avoidance to library fines. Recently, the idea of amnesty has come to structure many debates over irregular immigration. While amnesty’s meaning is usually treated as self-evident, the term in fact signifies in a variety of normative directions. This article employs amnesty as an optic to examine accountability …
Immigration Ethics and the Context of Justice
By now one might hope that the robust body of theoretical work recently published on immigration ethics would have taken general political philosophy a long way from the prevailing Rawlsian-style insularity premise, according to which society is “a closed system isolated from other societies” into which persons “enter only by birth and exit only by death.” But there are still a great many political theorists whose focus is unreflectively endogeno…
Denationalisation, Assassination, Territory
Unlike the several liberal states Macklin cites which have already, or will soon, deploy citizenship revocation as an anti-terrorism mechanism, the United States is unlikely to implement similar policies. The U.S. Constitution has been interpreted to prohibit unilateral citizenship-stripping as a tool of governance. Instead, denationalisation via expatriation in the U.S. requires the individual to specifically consent to relinquish the status, an…
Citizenship and Bleakness
Responding to the editors’ prompt: ‘Has your relationship to the study of citizenship changed?’ I ask in this brief essay whether the language of citizenship possesses the resources to contend with the fairly dire set of circumstances we currently face. I suggest that the concept’s analytical and normative force relies on certain democratic and universalist horizons which are under siege or in some state of collapse, and I therefore wonder whethe…
Distilling Solidarity
In the aftermath of the 2018 migrant caravans, the Mexican government arrested two migrants’ rights activists, 1 but not because they gave food or donated clothes to the caravaneros . The transgressive nature of their activism consisted of walking and organizing alongside people whose presence in the country was unauthorized. They were charged with smuggling-related crimes; but they were really “guilty” of solidarity. In this essay, we outline wh…
Law (16 works) · Political science (16 works) · Sociology (14 works) · Politics (13 works) · Migration, Refugees, and Integration (11 works) · Citizenship (9 works) · Law and economics (8 works) · Law (7 works) · Immigration (6 works) · Normative (5 works)