Consequences of Nationality in American Law

Nationality plays its principal role in immigration matters, but it has been put to significant uses in other areas of American law. This Article focuses on the consequences of the application of the nationality concept in constitutional law, civil rights legislation, taxation, and securities regulation. The author examines the functions which nationality has been required to fulfill and assesses the concept's capacity for accomplishing assigned legal tasks. The author criticizes the overbroad uses of nationality as a legal regulator, but finds that the concept can play a useful, though restricted, role in some areas.