Participation and the Protection of Citizens Abroad in International Law

Abstract

While the concept of protecting citizens abroad is a familiar one in public debate and international law, the practice of protection is little studied. Two ideas define the way in which the protection of citizens abroad is understood. Since the early twentieth century, international legal scholarship has contemplated the protection of citizens abroad through the decisions of international courts and tribunals. Many legal and non-legal measures may be taken to protect a citizen from a violation of international law abroad, yet scholars focus their attention narrowly on international legal cases. The second idea is that protection is a State enterprise. States may be praised for their interventions on behalf of their citizens or lambasted for their inaction. Scholarly analyses focus almost exclusively on State behaviour and preferences, without considering how other actors may influence, drive or inhibit protection. These framing ideas, international litigation as protection and a focus on States as protective actors, obscure other dimensions of protecting citizens from violations of international law abroad. This thesis investigates the nature of participation in the protection of citizens abroad and its significance for international law. It explores the actors who drive and deliver the protection of nationals, the behaviours that constitute the practice of protection, and the motivating factors for protective behaviour. The purpose of the study is to better understand the phenomenon of protection. The thesis examines examples of protection by Germany, Mexico and Australia. I observe that the protection of citizens abroad is a multi-actor phenomenon, where networks of actors form together to produce protective outcomes. Where there is an alignment of values and the opportunity to harness expertise, networks may form to devise strategies of intervention and perform tasks of protection. I propose that, in order to better account for participation in the international order, a more complex view of sovereignty is needed. I argue that the protection of citizens abroad is best understood through the concept of distributive sovereignty, whereby States distribute and delegate their protective functions across a network of State and non-State actors.