‘Civis Romanus Sum’ and the Legal Protection of Nationals Abroad

In the first century AD a Roman Citizen could proudly declare ‘Civis Romanus Sum’ anywhere in the world in order to assert the rights and protections which were owed to them by their powerful city state. The phrase was emphatically repeated by Lord Palmerston in 1850 in a call that, even when abroad, every British citizen should receive the state’s protection. For both Roman and Briton, the shared sentiment was that regardless of geographic location they would be protected by their government. The modern day protection offered to the citizen abroad is of a more subtle manner and much less intrusive than before, yet it is arguably more necessary than ever. The effects of globalization, specifically cross-border tourist travel and mass emigration, have generated renewed calls for clarity of the extent to which citizens will receive protection from their home state when outside its territorial borders. This paper explores this legal relationship between a citizen and state through a comparative analysis of the extraterritorial protections offered to nationals of Britain, Canada, South Africa and the United States of America.