Chairs
Adam Boubel, Université Paris 8 : adam.boubel02@etud.univ-paris8.fr
Raphaël Girard, University of Exeter Law School : R.Girard@exeter.ac.uk

SPEAKERS

Andrea	Gratteri
Basile	Ridard
Claudia	Marchese
Davide	Paris
Emanuel V.	Towfigh
Jean-Paul	Tealdi Correa
Lorenz	Tripp

The major increase in international migration flows in recent years has brought renewed attention to the participation of emigrants in the political life of their countries of origin. According to recent data from International IDEA, as of 2020, 73% of 204 surveyed states and territories provided for some form of extraterritorial or external voting, broadly understood as procedures which enable some or all electors of a country who are temporarily or permanently outside the country to exercise their voting rights from outside the national territory (Ellis, 2007).

Whilst this development is often seen as a pragmatic adaptation of electoral processes to global mobility, it nevertheless raises significant, complex, and under-explored constitutional and legal challenges. This workshop proposes to examine these issues from a comparative and interdisciplinary perspective, engaging both normative and practical dimensions of extraterritorial enfranchisement.

Key themes to be addressed include:

• The decoupling of citizenship from territoriality and its implications for democratic legitimacy.
• The recognition of a right to political participation from abroad under international and regional law.
• Disparities in national legislation on emigrant voting rights.
• Host state sovereignty and the legal constraints on organising elections abroad.
• Practical challenges and the role of technology in facilitating external voting and ensuring accessibility.
• The compatibility of extraterritorial voting mechanisms with constitutional principles, existing legal frameworks, and electoral heritage.
• The legal and political significance of dedicated representation for emigrants (e.g., reserved parliamentary seats).
• Residence as a criterion for (or source of) discrimination.
• Objective criteria that may justify maintaining a substantive bond between the emigrant and the home state (e.g., taxation, remittances, minimum periods of residence, or single nationality requirements).
• The challenges and limitations of conducting impartial election observation for extraterritorial voting processes.