Overlapping jurisdictions, disputed territory, unsettled state: the perplexing case of citizenship in Kosovo

This paper examines the nascent citizenship regime in Kosovo since the country’s declaration of independence in 2008. It argues that the defining characteristics of the Kosovan citizenship are: (1) adoption of the ‘new-state’ model (i.e. inclusion into its citizenship of all Kosovo residents); (2) tension between civic and multicultural conceptions of citizenship on the one side, and ethno-national conceptions on the other; and (3) contested nature and overlapping jurisdictions. In addition, it claims that the present legal, political and territorial dispute in Kosovo seriously undermines the consolidation of Kosovo’s citizenship regime and has turned Kosovo into a territory of de facto shared sovereignties (condominium-like constellations).

Keywords: citizenship, Kosovo, contested statehood and territory, Serbia