The right of residence as a right to entitlement within composite political systems

Abstract

The right to residency, understood as the right to reside where one chooses, is recognized, explicitly or implicitly, within the legal framework that governs three paradigmatic decentralized political systems: the United States’ federal system, the European Community system and the decentralized Spanish system. A fundamental consequence of the exercise of such right by the citizens of the respective political system is the ability of such citizens to access social rights. In fact, the right to residency has represented, in the majority of decentralized political systems, a key factor in determining the ability of citizens to access public benefits granted in a given region (federal, state, or local) within a country/ Europe. The right to residency, thus, became a right to receive other rights. Nevertheless, in the above legal systems, neither the recognition of the right to residency nor the recognition of the right to access public benefits, once one is a resident, has been created in the same fashion.