民族国家建构视域下的清末国籍立法

The Nationality Lawmaking in Late Qing Dynasty: Perspective on Nation-State Building

国籍立法是民族国家建构的基本环节,它使民族国家建立起"国民"边界。对于清末国籍立法,学术界主要把它看作是华侨保护、边民入境和属民改籍等问题导致的结果。从国家建构与国籍立法的历史关联出发,本文从民族国家建构的高度探讨清末国籍立法。民族国家建构包括政权建构和国民建构两大要素。政权建构体现在国际法知识的习得、国家意识的兴起和主权观念的发展上;国民建构则体现在国民身份意识的兴起、权利与义务观念的强化和民族主义的发展上。所有这些要素都与清末国籍立法存在着内在的关联。民族国家建构是推动清末国籍立法的根本动力,华侨保护等事件则是导致国籍立法的直接原因,必须将两者结合起来思考,才能对清末国籍立法形成全面的认识。以清末为起点,民族国家建构对国籍立法具有持续性影响。

Nationality lawmaking,which enables nation-state establishing clear boundaries of its nationals,is an essential part of the nation-state building project. As to the reasons that lead to the nationality lawmaking in the late Qing Dynasty,most studies regard them as the results of the protection of overseas Chinese,the illegal immigration of neighboring residents,and the nationality change of domestic residents. Based on the historical relations between nation-state building and nationality lawmaking,this article studies the nationality lawmaking in the late Qing Dynasty from the perspective of nation-state building. Nation-state building can be divided into two parts: state-building,which can be expounded through the elements of the knowledge of international laws,the consciousness of a modern state and the conception of sovereignty,and nation-building,which can be expounded through the elements of the membership consciousness of a nation-state,the notion of rights and obligations and the conception of nationalism. All these elements are inherently related to the nationality lawmaking in the late Qing Dynasty. Based on these arguments,this article concludes that nation-state building is the fundamental impetus of the nationality lawmaking in the late Qing Dynasty while concrete events like the protection of overseas Chinese,etc.,which must be analyzed in the context of nation-state building,are the fuses. With the late Qing Dynasty as the starting point,the nation-state building has an everlasting influence on the nationality lawmaking in modern China.