Who's Entitled to Passport Privilege with Dimitry Kochenov

While citizenship is often celebrated as a cornerstone of democracy and equality, constitutional scholar Dimitry Kochenov argues it functions as something far more troubling: a global caste system.

In this episode, we speak with Kochenov, who is also a professor of legal studies at the Central European University, about how citizenship acts as a tool of exclusion—a "passport apartheid" assigned almost entirely by the luck of where or to whom you were born. We explore the deep tension between human rights and nationality, examining how the abstract machinery of passports erases individual humanity in favor of arbitrary borders. From the illusion of international reciprocity to practical alternatives grounded in individualized assessment, Kochenov challenges us to rethink how we grant dignity, mobility, and rights in a modern world.

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