Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-12T20:09:10.911Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Ethno-racial identity (politics) by law: “Fraud” and “choice”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Andras L. Pap
Andras L. Pap*
Affiliation:
Hungarian Academy of Sciences Center for Social Sciences, Institute for Legal Studies, Budapest, Hungary Slovak Academy of Sciences, Institute of Sociology, Bratislava, Slovakia Nationalism Studies Program, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary Department for Law Enforcement Theory, National Public Service University, Faculty of Law Enforcement, Budapest, Hungary
*
*Email: papa@ceu.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Following an introduction to the changes in how ethno-racial identity is conceptualized in the social sciences and humanities by the destabilization of categorical frameworks, the author looks at how law reacts to these discussions and paradigm shifts, and argues that legal and administrative approaches face severe linguistic and conceptual limitations by operating within a “choice” and “fraud” binary. The article then questions if the free choice of identity exists as a principle of international minority protection law, a legal field that arguably represents a global political and ethical consensus. The author makes two claims. First, according to the basic tenet of legal logic, a proper right to free choice of identity allowing people to opt out of racial, ethnic, or national (minority) communities would necessitate the freedom to opt in to the majority or to any chosen group. The second claim, however, is that international law would not actually construct an approach to opting in. Thus, the right to free choice of identity is not an autonomous, sui generis right under international law.

Keywords

free choice of identityassimilationclassificationcensusethnocorruptionmultiracialracial passingracial migrationimmutabilityracial fraudelective race
Type
Articles
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 45 , Issue 5 , September 2017 , pp. 968 - 987
Copyright
Copyright © 2017 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aceves, William J. 2015. “Two Stories about Skin Color and International Human Rights Advocacy.” Washington University Global Studies Law Review 14 (4): 563–584.Google Scholar
Ambrus, Monika. 2012. “Genocide and Discrimination: Lessons to Be Learnt from Discrimination Law.” Leiden Journal of International Law 25: 935–954.Google Scholar
Barth, Frederik. 1969. Ethnic Groups and Boundaries: The Social Organization of Culture Difference. Bergen: Scandinavian University Press.Google Scholar
Bieber, Florian. 2015. “The Construction of National Identity and its Challenges in Post-Yugoslav Censuses.” Social Science Quarterly 96 (3): 873–903.Google Scholar
Bowker, Geoffrey C., and Star, Susan L. 1999. Sorting Things Out: Classification and its Consequences. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Brubaker, Rogers. 2004. Ethnicity Without Groups. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Brubaker, Rogers. 2016a. “The Dolezal Affair: Race, Gender, and the Micropolitics of Identity.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 39 (3): 414–448.Google Scholar
Brubaker, Rogers. 2016b. Trans: Gender, Race, and the Micropolitics of Identity. Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Brubaker, Rogers, and Cooper, Frederick. 2000. “Beyond ‘Identity'.” Theory and Society 29 (1): 1–47.Google Scholar
Brubaker, Rogers, Loveman, Mara, and Stamatov, Peter. 2004. “Ethnicity as Cognition.” Theory and Society 33 (1): 31–64.Google Scholar
Carstocea, Andreea. 2011. “Ethno-Business – the Manipulation of Minority Rights in Romania and Hungary.” In Perpetual Motion? Transformation and Transition in Central and Eastern Europe & Russia, edited by Bhambry, Tul'si, Griffin, Clare, Hjelm, Titus, Nicholson, Christopher, and Voronina, Olga G., 16–28. London: UCL, School of Slavonic and East European Studies.Google Scholar
Chanbonpin, Kim D. 2015. “Between Black and White: The Coloring of Asian Americans: Passing in Colorism.” Washington University Global Studies Law Review 14 (4): 637–663.Google Scholar
Clarke, Jessica. 2015. “Against Immutability.” Yale Law Journal 125 (1): 2–102.Google Scholar
Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe. 1990. Concluding Document on the Human Dimension, Copenhagen, paras 32–33.Google Scholar
Council of Europe. 1995a. Explanatory Report to the Council of Europe's Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities 3. Article 3, para 36. http://www.coe.int/t/dghl/monitoring/minorities/1_atglance/PDF_H(95)10_FCNM_ExplanReport_en.pdf.Google Scholar
Council of Europe. 1995b. Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, paras 34–36, Article 3.1, Strasbourg, H(1995)010.Google Scholar
Deets, Stephen. 2002. “Reconsidering East European Minority Policy: Liberal Theory and European Norms.” East European Politics and Society 16(1): 30–53.Google Scholar
Deets, Stephen, and Stroschein, Sherrill. 2005. “Dilemmas of Autonomy and Liberal Pluralism: Examples Involving Hungarians in Central Europe.” Nations and Nationalism 11 (2): 285–305.Google Scholar
Domínguez, Virginia R. 1986. White by Definition: Social Classification in Creole Louisiana. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
European Court of Human Rights. 2010. Ciubotaru v. Moldova, App. No. 27138/04.Google Scholar
Ford, Christopher A. 1994. “Administering Identity: The Determination of ‘Race’ in Race-Conscious Law.” California Law Review 82 (5): 1231–1285.Google Scholar
Garance, Franke-Ruta. 2012. “Is Elizabeth Warren Native American or What?” The Atlantic, May 20.Google Scholar
Harris, Cheryl I. 1993. “Whiteness as Property.” Harvard Law Review 106 (8): 1707–1791.Google Scholar
Harris, David R., and Joseph Sim, Jeremiah. 2002. “Who Is Multiracial? Assessing the Complexity of Lived Race.” American Sociological Review 67 (4): 614–627.Google Scholar
Heyes, Cressida. 2003. “Feminist Solidarity after Queer Theory: The Case of Transgender.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 28 (4): 1093–1120.Google Scholar
Heyes, Cressida. 2006. “Changing Race, Changing Sex: The Ethics of Self-Transformation.” Journal of Social Philosophy 37 (2): 266–282.Google Scholar
Heyes, Cressida. 2016. “Identity Politics.” In The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, edited by Zalta., Edward N. http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2016/entries/identity-politics.Google Scholar
Hobbs, Allyson Vanessa. 2014. A Chosen Exile: A History of Racial Passing in American Life. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Hoffmann, Tamás. 2014. “The Perils of Judicial Construction of Identity – A Critical Analysis of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia's Jurisprudence on Protected Persons.” In Allegiance and Identity in a Globalised world, edited by Fiona Jenkins, Mark Nolan, and Rubenstein, Kim, 497–521. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hungarian data protection law on Informational Self-Determination and Freedom of Information, 2011, Act No. CXII.Google Scholar
Hungarian minority rights act – on the Rights of National and Ethnic Minorities, 1993, Act LXXVII.Google Scholar
Hunter, Margaret. 2011. “Buying Racial Capital: Skin-Bleaching and Cosmetic Surgery in a Globalized World.” The Journal of Pan African Studies 4 (4): 142–164.Google Scholar
Ignatiev, Noel. 1995. How the Irish Became White. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Ignatiev, Noel, and Garvey, John, eds. 1996. Race Traitor. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Jeffreys, Sheila, and Gottschalk, Lorene. 2013. Gender Hurts: A Feminist Analysis of the Politics of Transgenderism. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Jenkins, Fiona. 2014. “Pledging Allegiance: the Strangers Inside Democracy and Citizenship.” In Allegiance and Identity in a Globalised World, edited by Fiona Jenkins, Mark Nolan, and Rubenstein, Kim, 169–191. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kelly, Mary E., and Nagel, Joane. 2002. “Ethnic Re-Identification: Lithuanian Americans and Native Americans.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 28 (2): 275–289.Google Scholar
Kennedy, Randall. 2003. Interracial Intimacies: Sex, Marriage, Identity, and Adoption. New York: Pantheon.Google Scholar
Kimmerling, Baruch. 2002. “Nationalism, Identity, and Citizenship. An Epilogue to the Yehoshua-Shammas Debate.” In Challenging Ethnic Citizenship. German and Israeli Perspectives on Immigration, edited by Levy, Daniel, and Weiss, Yfaat, 181–195. New York: Berghahn.Google Scholar
Kruks, Sonia. 2001. Retrieving Experience: Subjectivity and Recognition in Feminist Politics. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Kymlicka, Will. 1995. Multicultural Citizenship: A Liberal Theory of Minority Rights. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Laitin, David D. 1998. Identity in Formation: The Russian-Speaking Populations in the near Abroad. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Language Rights of Persons Belonging to National Minorities under the Framework Convention, Thematic Commentary.Google Scholar
Lingaas, Carola. 2016. “Imagined Identities: Defining the Racial Group in the Crime of Genocide.” Genocide Studies and Prevention 10 (1): 79–106.Google Scholar
López, Ian F. 1996. White by Law, the Legal Construction of Race. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar
Loveman, Mara. 2014. National Colors, Racial Classification and the State in Latin America. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Minority Rights Ombudsman database. 2010. (“Rövid összegzés a nemzeti és etnikai jogok országgyűlési biztosának a ‘Romák foglalkoztatása a közigazgatásban és az igazságszolgáltatásban’ című program vizsgálatáról” [Short summary of the report on the investigation of the parliamentary commissioner for national and ethnic minority rights on “Roma employment in the public service and justice system”]). http://kisebbsegiombudsman.hu/hir-526-rovid-osszegzes-nemzeti-es-etnikai.html.Google Scholar
Molnár, Emilia, and Schaft, Kai A. 2003. “Preserving ‘Cultural Autonomy’ or Confronting Social Crisis? The Activities and Aims of Roma Local Minority Self-Governments 2000–2001.” Review of Sociology of the Hungarian Sociological Association 9 (1): 27–42.Google Scholar
Onwuachi-Willig, Angela. 2007. “The Admission of Legacy Blacks.” Vanderbilt Law Review 60: 1141–1231.Google Scholar
Organization on Security and Cooperation in Europe. 2012. The Ljubljana Guidelines on Integration of Diverse Societies. http://www.osce.org/hcnm/96883.Google Scholar
Overall, Christine, and Rowan, John. 2004. “Transsexualism and ‘Transracialism'.” Social Philosophy Today 20: 183–193.Google Scholar
Pap, András László. 2015. “Is There a Legal Right to Free Choice of Ethno-Racial Identity? Legal and Political Difficulties in Defining Minority Communities and Membership Boundaries.” Columbia Human Rights Law Review 46 (2): 153–232.Google Scholar
Pember, Mary Annette. 2007. “Ethnic Fraud?” Diverse: Issues in Higher Education 23 (25): 20–23.Google Scholar
Ram, Melanie H. 2014. “Europeanized Hypocrisy: Roma Inclusion and Exclusion in Central and Eastern Europe.” Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe 13 (3): 15–44.Google Scholar
Rich, Camille Gear. 2014. “Elective Race: Identifying Race Discrimination in the Era of Racial Self Definition.” Georgetown Law Journal 102 (5): 1502–1572.Google Scholar
Rotunda, Ronald. 1993. Modern Constitutional Law, Cases and Notes. St. Paul: West.Google Scholar
S. and Marper v. the United Kingdom GC nos.30562/04 and 30566/04, § 66, December 4, 2008.Google Scholar
Sharfstein, Daniel J. 2007. “Crossing the Color Line: Racial Migration and the One-Drop Rule, 1600–1860.” Minnesota Law Review 91: 592–656.Google Scholar
Simon, Patrick. 2007. “Ethnic” Statistics and Data Protection in the Council of Europe Countries. European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance. https://www.coe.int/t/dghl/monitoring/ecri/activities/Themes/Ethnic_statistics_and_data_protection.pdf.Google Scholar
Spiro, Peter J. 2014. “The End of Olympic Nationality.” In Allegiance and Identity in a Globalised World, edited by Fiona Jenkins, Mark Nolan, and Rubenstein, Kim, 478–496. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sternberg, Nitzan. 2012. “Do I Need to Pin a Target to My Back? The Definition of ‘Particular Social Group’ in U.S. Asylum Law.” Fordham Urban Law Journal 39 (1): 246–297.Google Scholar
Tajfel, Henri. 1981. Human Groups and Social Categories: Studies in Social Psychology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Taylor, Charles. 1989. Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
UN Human Rights Committee. 1981. Lovelace v. Canada, Communication No. R/6/24/ para 14, U.N. Doc. Supp. No. 40 (A/36/40) at 166.Google Scholar
UN Human Rights Committee. 2007. UN Principles and Recommendations for Population andGoogle Scholar
Housing Censuses, Rev. 2, 2007 (ST/ESA/STAT/ SER.M/67/Rev.2).Google Scholar
UN Human Rights Committee. 2007. United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, 2007.Google Scholar
Valentine, John R. 2004. “Toward a Definition of National Minority.” Denver Journal of International Law and Policy 32 (3): 445–473.Google Scholar
Walker, Bela August. 2008. “Fractured Bonds: Policing Whiteness and Womanhood through Race-Based Marriage Annulments.” Depaul Law Review 58: 1–50.Google Scholar
Weiss, Yfaat. 2002. “The Golem and its Creator, or How the Jewish Nation-State Became Multi-Ethnic.” In Challenging Ethnic Citizenship. German and Israeli Perspectives on Immigration, edited by Levy, Daniel, and Weiss, Yfaat, 82–104. New York: Berghahn.Google Scholar
Wright, Luther Jr. 1995. “Who's Black, Who's White, and Who Cares: Reconceptualizing the United States's Definition of Race and Racial Classifications.” Vanderbilt Law Review 48: 513–569.Google Scholar
Yang, Tseming. 2006. “Choice and Fraud in Racial Identification: The Dilemma of Policing Race in Affirmative Action, the Census, and a Color-Blind Society.” Michigan Journal of Race and Law 11: 267–417.Google Scholar
Young, Rebecca. 2010. “How Do We Know Them When We See Them? The Subjective Evolution in the Identification of Victim Groups for the Purpose of Genocide.” International Criminal Law Review 10 (1): 1–22.Google Scholar
Zagor, Matthew. 2014. “Recognition and Narrative Identities: Is Refugee Law Redeemable?.” In Allegiance and Identity in a Globalised World, edited by Fiona Jenkins, Mark Nolan, and Rubenstein, Kim, 311–353. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar