Citizen
Citizen
Citizen, in its most general sense, an individual member of a given political society or state; by extension, one who owes allegiance to and may lawfully demand protection from the government of that state. The more specific sense of the term citizen is closely in accord with the original meaning of the word. In the free republics of classical antiquity, the term citizen signified not merely a resident of a town but a free, governing member of the state, just as the Latin term civitas, from which the English word city is derived, signified not merely a local municipality but the state as a whole. In the Greek idea of citizenship, as expressed by Aristotle, citizens had the right to participate in both the legislative and judicial functions of their political community. This right was carefully guarded and was rarely conferred on anyone of foreign birth. In ancient Rome two classes of citizens were recognized. The first possessed the rights of citizenship, including the privilege of voting in the public assembly; the other possessed these rights and the additional right of holding offices of state. As in the United States and other modern states, citizenship in Rome, although usually acquired by birth, could also be attained by naturalization, or by special grant of the state.
In the U.S. the word citizen is used in its broadest sense. The same person may be, and usually is, a citizen of the U.S. and of the state in which the person resides. Not all U.S. citizens are citizens of a state, however; an inhabitant of the District of Columbia or of Puerto Rico, Guam, or the Virgin Islands is a citizen of the U.S. without being a citizen of one of the states. In regard to citizenship in the federal government and in the state of residence, the citizen owes first and highest allegiance to the federal government.
A citizen of the U.S. may be either native-born or naturalized. By a congressional act of 1922 the citizenship of a married woman is no longer determined by that of her husband. A naturalized citizen is one who was originally a subject of a foreign state but has become a citizen of the U.S. under the various acts of Congress bearing on that subject. A person who is naturalized is admitted to all the privileges and duties of citizenship, and naturalization automatically confers citizenship on the person’s minor children resident at the time in the U.S. A person may also hold dual citizenship, which means that person is officially recognized as a citizen by two different nations. This occurs most commonly when a child is born in one country and the parents hold citizenship in another. It also sometimes is concurrent with naturalization, if the country a person is leaving does not recognize the change of allegiance.
In modern practice, citizenship does not necessarily involve the right of voting or of other participation in political activity, as in the Greek concept of the term; minors may be citizens, but they may also be excluded from all direct political activity.
The word citizen is often loosely used as synonymous with resident or inhabitant. State laws conferring the franchise on aliens who have filed declarations of intention to become citizens are often regarded as conferring citizenship. Where a law uses the word citizen in this loose sense, the courts are often called on to interpret the word. (1)
Citizen in Election Law
A national of a country, either by birth or by a process of naturalisation who as a result enjoys certain rights and responsibilities, including civil and political rights.
Citizen
Embracing mainstream international law, this section on citizen explores the context, history and effect of the area of the law covered here.
Citizen
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See Also
- Citizenship
Resources
Further Reading
- The entry “citizen” in the Parry and Grant Encyclopaedic Dictionary of International Law (currently, the Encyclopaedic Dictionary of International Law, 2009), Oxford University Press
Resources
See Also
- Election Law
- Electoral Laws
- Electoral Legislation
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