CITIZEN. In English Law. An inhabit ant of a city. 1 Rolle, Abr. 138; 18 L. Q. Rev. 49. The representative of a city, in parliament. 1 Bla. Com. 174.
At common law a natural-born subject in cluded every child born in England of alien parents except the child of an ambassador or diplomatic agent or of an alien enemy in hostile occupation of the place where the child was born ; U. S. v. Wong Kim Ark, 169 U. S. 649, 18 Sup. Ct. 456, 42 L. Ed. 890. It made difference whether the parents were permanently or only temporarily residing in England ; Cockb. Nat. 7.
In Roman Law. Under Roman. law there were four methods of acquiring citizenship: 1. Every man was a citizen whose father was such before him. 2. A slave when he became a free man followed the condition of his former master. 3. Certain privileged classes by statutes could by their own acts become citizens, as by service for three years in the Roman armies, or the erection of a house in Rome worth at least 100,000 sesterces, or building a ship and for six years carrying corn to Rome. 4. By legislation such aliens as were thought fit were received into citi zenship. This would now be termed nat uralization.
Citizenship might be lost by reduction into slavery, capture in war, banishment and "01 untary expatriation.
The net result of citizenship was that by it alone one became entitled to the protection of the laws—the jus civile. It was exclusive and personal, not territorial. For a discus sion of the subject, see 17 L. Q. Rev. 270.
See Jus CIVITATIS.
The term citizen was used in Rome to in dicate the possession of private civil rights, including those accruing under the Roman family and inheritance law and the Roman contract and property law. All other sub jects were peregrines. But in the beginning of the 3d century the distinction was abolish ed and all subjects were citizens; 1 SeL Es says in Anglo-Amer. L. H. 578.
By the Roman law the citizenship of the child followed that of the parent. Tne Code Napoldon changed the law of France, which until then (1807) had followed the feudal rule that citizenship was determined by birth, to the rule of the descent of blood, the jus sanguinis of the civil law. It has been
contended that this is the true principle of international law ; Vattel, b. 1, c. 19, § 21.2; Bar, Int. L. § 31; dissenting opinion in U. S. v. Wong Kim Ark, 169 U. S. 649, 18 Sup. Ct. 456, 42 L. Ed. 890. But the last case settled the law of the United States that mere birth within the country confers citizenship, fol lowing the rule of the English common law and denying the existence of a settled and definite rule of international law inconsist ent therewith.
In American Law. One who, under the constitution and laws of the United States, has a right to vote for representatives in congress, and other public officers, and who is qualified to fill offices in the gift of the peo ple. • All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdic tion thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside; 14th Amendment, U. S. Const.
One of the sovereign people. A constituent member of the sovereignty, synonymous with the people. Scott v. Sandford, 19 How. (U. S.) 404, 15 L. Ed. 691.
A member of the civil state entitled to all its privileges. Cooley, Const. Lim. 77. See U. S. v. Cruikshank, 92 U. S. 542, 23 L. Ed. 588 ; Minor v. Happersett, 21 Wall. (U. S.) 162, 22 L. Ed. 627; Web. Cit. 48.
The provisions of the U. S. R. S. in rela tion to citizens are as follows: Sec. 1992. All persons born in the United States and not subject to any foreign power, excluding Indians not taxed, are declared to be citizens of the United States.
Sec. 1993. All children heretofore born or hereafter born out of the limits and jurisdic tion of the United States, whose fathers were or may be at the time of their birth citi zens thereof, are declared to be citizens of the United States; but the rights of citizen ship shall not descend to children whose fa thers never resided in the United States.