ABSTRACT
This chapter surveys the histories of citizenship policies of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, and Montenegro. Historically, the post-Yugoslav space has been at the crossroads of both empires and religions. However, under the theocratic rule in Montenegro, some aspects of independent governance of citizenship emerged as did the manifold aspects of the debate over statehood and identity. Until the mid nineteenth century, the territories of the Ottoman Empire were governed by Islamic principles and the Sharia Law, based on the millet system. By contrast, the geographical position of Montenegro, and the country's history, affected its citizenship regime prior to the establishment of the 'first' Yugoslavia in 1918. The 1976 Yugoslav Citizenship Act streamlined the previous legislation and aligned it with the federal principles enshrined in the 1974 constitution of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. In the late 1980s Yugoslavia was faced with a major economic crisis, which fuelled grievances and intensified nationalist movements.
