While studies of Kurdish identity focus on this hot potato from the angle of the Kurds right to an independent state, Kurdistan, we propose to study the legal qualification of Kurdish identity in Iraq. The transition of Iraq from a nation-state to a federal state reveals a desire to break with a tumultuous past to democratise. However, without being able to rid itself of the burdens of the past, Iraq is still confronted with the Kurdish question. In this new context, the aim is to analyse how the recognition of Kurdish legal identity in the new federal Iraq challenges the nation-state.