Nationality law

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nationality law is the branch of a country's legal system wherein legislation, custom and court precedent combine to define the ways in which that country's nationality and citizenship are transmitted, acquired or lost. Nationality law is often discussed or studied along with immigration law (for those immigrant-receiving countries such as the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand) and with refugee or asylum law.

1 Common principles
2 Nationality issues in post-colonial context
3 Examples of nationality law (Citizenship) in specific countries
4 See also

[edit] Common principles

Nationality law in Continental Europe tends to be based upon the Napoleonic Code which established that for purposes of nationality, that of the father was primary. For many years, therefore, in Europe and in former European colonies, women could not transmit their nationality to their children born in wedlock (those children born outside of marriage could often acquire their mother's nationality as there were provisions so that no child would be stateless). Many of these laws have since been changed, with the Arab states being an exception. In many Arab states, women married to foreigners cannot transmit their nationality to their children.[1] Many countries also have provisions stating that native-born children of accredited foreign diplomatic staff/officers do not acquire that nationality.

Article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states:

Everyone has the right to a nationality.
No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.

Today, nationality law is based either on jus soli or jus sanguinis, or on a combination of the two. Jus soli is the principle in which a child born in a country's territorial jurisdiction acquires that country's nationality (Ex: United States, Canada, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, France [including in its overseas dependencies]). In jus sanguinis, either the father or mother must normally be a citizen of the country in question in order for the child to be a citizen (e.g. Israel, Switzerland).

[edit] Nationality issues in post-colonial context

Often in post-colonial situations, sorting out the nationalities of settlers, colonists and subjects was difficult and often a highly politically-charged process, particularly in the United Kingdom and in so-called settler colonies of Africa, such as South Africa, Rhodesia (now called Zimbabwe), Uganda and Hong Kong. For example see History of British nationality law

[edit] Examples of nationality law (Citizenship) in specific countries

[edit] Europe

EUROPEAN UNION Austrian nationality law Belgian nationality law British nationality law Czech nationality law Dutch nationality law Finnish nationality law French nationality law	German nationality law Greek nationality law Hungarian nationality law Irish nationality law Italian nationality law Lithuanian nationality law Maltese nationality law	Polish nationality law Portuguese nationality law Slovak nationality law Slovenian nationality law Swedish nationality law Citizenship of the European Union
NON EUROPEAN UNION Belarusian citizenship Icelandic nationality law Norwegian nationality law	Serbian citizenship Swiss nationality law