Spin of Chern-Simons vortices

We discuss a novel method of obtaining the fractional spin of abelian and nonabelian Chern-Simons vortices. This spin is interpreted as the difference between the angular momentum obtained by modifying Schwinger's energy momentum tensor by the Gauss constraint, and the canonical (Noether) angular momentum. It is found to be a boundary term depending only on the gauge field and, hence, is independent of the matter sector to which the Chern-Simons term couples. Addition of the Maxwell term does not alter the fractional spin.