Adrienne Thomas, Esq. / Artist

Presents Professor George Ginsburgs

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Ginsburgs George March 25, 2025, age 93. George passed away peacefully surrounded by family members. He is survived by Lynda, his wife and partner of 38 years, his children Vera (Scott), and Boris, grandchildren, Nadia and Ronin, predeceased by his daughter, Pauline and brother Jacob. Known as Grisha to close family and friends, George was born in Shanghai, China on February 13, 1932, to Leon and Rachele Ginsburgs (nee Mashkovich). George’s early education was at the College Francais de Changhai, where he received his Baccalaureate (with honors) in 1950. The family was forced to leave China in 1951 as displaced persons after WWII and lived in Germany for one year. Because he could speak multiple languages including Russian, French and English, George was given a job in the displaced persons camp helping other displaced foreigners complete required governmental paperwork, among other tasks. He also became fluent in German during that year. The family emigrated to the U.S. in 1952 and settled in Los Angeles, where George almost immediately applied, and was easily accepted, into UCLA. In fact, he recalled that as a foreigner he had to take an English proficiency test and was viewed suspiciously when he only made one error. At UCLA he completed his B.A. in International Relations (cum laude), M.A. in Political Science (Thesis on The Soviet Union, the Nuremberg Trials, and International Law) and Ph.D. (Dissertation on the Theory and Practice of Neutrality in Soviet Diplomacy) and learned to speak Spanish fluently along the way. It was at UCLA that he met his best and lifelong friend, Oles Smolansky. George served in the U.S. Army, stateside, from 1954 to 1956 where he trained as a Gunner and then worked as a Corporal in the Signals Corp. After attaining his Ph.D., (1960) George taught at the University of Iowa as a professor, for five years, then the New School for Social Research in New York for seven years. Lastly, he settled at the Rutgers Law School in Camden, New Jersey as a professor of law (1973). His writings were very well respected and cited by many, including the courts. He was often called upon for his expert opinion in international court cases, and his work has been cited in U.S. Supreme Court opinions. George was very erudite, witty and soft-spoken but wielded a sharp pen. George retired from Rutgers as a Distinguished Professor of Law with Emeritus status. In retirement George loved to work in the garden and feed his animal friends, squirrels, birds and chipmunks. He was always a great lover of the arts, especially opera and ballet. 

In 1968, the predecessor of this volume was published as Number 15 of the Law in Eastern Europe series, under the title “Soviet Citizenship Law”. The decision to put out a new version of that study was prompted by the enactment in 1978 of the CUTTent Law on the Citizenship of the USSR and the various changes in Soviet practice in this domain which occurred in the intervening decade. I have drawn on the earlier work for background material and in order to make comparisons between the previous record here and the substance of the latest statute. However, the present monograph is not a second edition in the sense of being an expanded and updated revision of the original but stands as an independent piece of research and analysis. Thus, three of the chapters (out of a total of six) featured in the 1968 vol­ume – citizenship and state succession, state succession and option of nationality, and refugees and displaced persons – have now been omitted for the simple reason that the situation in these areas has remained virtually static during the past ten years so that the initial treatment requires no significant alteration. On the other hand, fresh problems have meantime arisen – such as, for instance, the connection between citizenship and emigration, and the relationship between citizenship status and the international protection of human rights – which called for attention and are dealt with in this book.

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A. Thomas’ email: ahthomasesq@gmail.com

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