Supreme Court President Dineke de Groot received thousands of letters from citizens declaring themselves sovereign or autonomous. These people no longer want anything to do with the government and refuse to pay fines and taxes. De Groot expressed her concerns about this development to Trouw. Nick Efthymiou, Assistant Professor of Constitutional Law at Erasmus School of Law, and Wouter Scherpenisse, PhD candidate at Erasmus School of Law, argue that there are legal grounds for losing Dutch citizenship, but that these will not provide a solution for 'sovereign persons'.
Against the fundamental
"People who send in these forms are not sufficiently aware that everyone in this country is bound by the laws and rules that apply in this country", De Groot argues. "The Supreme Court cannot do anything with this mail and does nothing with it." That is exactly the problem, because this group of individuals send letters to the Supreme Court thinking they can then live a free and untroubled life. After all, a sovereign person is someone who does not recognise any power greater than the person himself - so no state either.
Efthymiou and Scherpenisse explain that this phenomenon is not desirable from principles of rule of law. "A rule of law and even more fundamentally 'the law' only function if citizens are bound by the rules of the game, but also benefit from a direct trust in the legitimacy of this boundedness to the rules. A situation in which citizens try to distance themselves from our rule of law through extrajudicial procedures is undesirable."
The Dutch citizenship
There are countless sites on the internet where you can read how to declare yourself sovereign. The first step would be to apply for a secret code 7 at the Municipal Personal Records Database. Then you 'claim' your name back, after which you send a letter to the King. The researchers argue that although the Netherlands Nationality Act has grounds on which Dutch citizenship can be lost, these do not readily apply. "The idea that one gets rid of citizenship quite easily through the post is an illusion that has cost many people unnecessary money", they say. The Netherlands Nationality Act lists the grounds on which Dutch citizenship can be lost. These are not grounds that are easily satisfied.
Moreover, Efthymiou and Scherpenisse argue that it is virtually impossible to lose Dutch citizenship if this is the only nationality of the 'sovereign' person. "As a starting point, one cannot lose Dutch citizenship if one holds only this nationality. Statelessness is not a real possibility for the group of 'sovereigns'.”
State of Nature
"Should these people wish to renounce Dutch citizenship," the researchers argue, "it would be advisable to apply for a new, recognised nationality elsewhere in the first instance. However, if we have read correctly, being subordinate to any state is a problem for these sovereigns; so back to the Hobbesian State of Nature?"
Philosophers of law have thought about such a State of Nature before, with the outcome not being too rosy. "It should be noted that this State of Nature was a thought experiment, used by philosophers of law as a spectre rather than an ideal image. The strong have the upper hand, without being limited in their exercise of power by fundamental safeguards to which the less strong can appeal. We should not look for so much room for 'sovereignty' in the sense of personal freedom in such thought experiments. Besides, we are curious to know where these autonomists in the Nature State will turn for things like state pension benefits, legal aid, allowances and permits, if needed. A state does not only bring burdens."
- Assistant professor
- PhD student