Public International Law: Nationality and Statelessness

NATIONALITY d. By adoption of orphan minors as

– Membership in a political community with
all its concomitant rights and obligations
– It is the tie that binds an individual to his
state from which he can claim protection
and whose laws he is obliged to obey
– It is different from citizenship
Citizenship
– has a more exclusive scope in that it
applies only to certain members of the
state accorded more privileges than the
rest of the people who also owes it
allegiance
Acquisition
By Birth
nationals of the state where they are
born
Derivative naturalization is conferred:
a. On the wife of the naturalized husband
b. On the minor children of the
naturalized parent
c. On the alien woman upon marriage to
a national
 It does not always follow, it is subject to
stringent restrictions and conditions
Multiple Nationality
– An individual possessed with more than
one nationality because of the concurrent
application to him of the municipal laws of
the states claiming him as their national

Jure soli
Doctrine of indelible allegiance

– Nationality of the state where he is born

– An individual may be compelled to retain
Jure sanguinis his original nationality notwithstanding
that he has already renounced or forfeited
– Nationality of parents or by blood
it under the laws of a second state whose
nationality he has acquired

By Naturalization – In contrast, a state may allow any of its

nationals to remain as such even if he
– A process by which a foreigner acquires, may have acquired another nationality
voluntarily or by operation of law, the
nationality of another state Loss of Nationality

Direct naturalization is effected: Voluntarily

a. By individual proceedings, usually a. Renunciation

judicial, under general naturalization – Express or implied

laws; a. Request for release

b. By special act of the legislature

c. By collective change of nationality  Both usually precede the acquisition of a
new nationality
Public International Law: Nationality and Statelessness
Involuntarily international delinquency committed as a
result of the damage caused upon him
a. Forfeiture
– Result of some disqualification or Under the Hague Convention of 1930
prohibited act
– Loss of nationality by an individual upon
a. Substitution
his retention or acquisition of another
– A change of nationality from one to
nationality
another following a change of sovereignty
– In case of naturalization, the wife and
or any act conferring derivative
children retain their existing nationality if
naturalization
they are not also naturalized and
Conflict of Nationality Laws moreover the wife will acquire her
husband’s new nationality, if permitted,
Under the Hague Convention of 1930
only with her own consent
– It is for the State to determine its – The adopted child’s nationality is also not
nationals under its law lost if he does not acquire the adopter’s
– Questions regarding a person’s nationality nationality
shall be determined in accordance with – In other cases, it is provided that children
the law of the State shall have the nationality of the state of
– A person having multiple nationality may their birth whenever their parents are
be regarded as its national by each States a. Unknown
whose nationality he possesses b. Stateless or of unknown nationality
– State may not afford diplomatic protection c. A father who is stateless or of unknown
to one of its nationals against a State nationality and a mother who is a
whose nationality such person also national of the state where they are
possesses born
– Within a third state, a person having more
Recourse
than one personality shall be treated as if
he had only one Under the Covenant Relating to the Status of
Stateless Persons
Statelessness
– He is entitled to the right to religion and
– The condition or status of an individual
religious instructions, access to courts,
who is born without any nationality or who
elementary education, public relief and
loses his nationality without retaining or
assistance and rationing of products in
acquiring another
short supply as well as treatment no less
– Any wrong suffered by him through the
favorable than that accorded to aliens
act or omission of a state would be
generally
damnum absque injurio for in theory no
– He is also protected under the Universal
other state had been offended and no
Declaration of Human Rights
Public International Law: Nationality and Statelessness