Nationality law

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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 or for free immigration areas such as the EU) 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
5 References

[edit] Common principles

Nationality laws in Continental Europe are mostly 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 some Arab states, women married to foreigners cannot transmit their nationality to their children.^[1]^[2] 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

See also: Category:Nationality law

[edit] Europe

EUROPEAN UNION Austrian nationality law Belgian nationality law Bulgarian nationality law British nationality law Cypriot nationality law Czech nationality law Danish nationality law Estonian 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	Latvian nationality law Lithuanian nationality law Luxembourgian nationality law Maltese nationality law Polish nationality law Portuguese nationality law Romanian nationality law Slovak nationality law	Slovenian nationality law Spanish nationality law Swedish nationality law Citizenship of the European Union
NON EUROPEAN UNION Albanian nationality law Armenian nationality law Belarusian citizenship Bosnia and Herzegovina nationality law Croatian nationality law Icelandic nationality law Republic of Macedonia nationality law Moldovan nationality law	Montenegrin nationality law Norwegian nationality law Russian nationality law Serbian nationality law Swiss nationality law Ukrainian nationlaity law

[edit] Africa

[edit] Americas

[edit] Asia & the Middle East

[edit] Oceania

[edit] Other

Naturalized TRNC citizens in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus

[edit] See also

[edit] References

^ Women and The Nationality Problem in the Arab World, tradicionalista.wordpress.com, April 30, 2008, http://tradicionalista.wordpress.com/2008/04/30/women-and-the-nationality-problem-in-the-arab-world/, retrieved on 30 October 2008
^ "Lebanese women cannot independently pass citizenship to their children", Antiquated laws violate women's civil rights, zawya.com, 27 August 2007, http://www.zawya.com/story.cfm/sidDS270807_dsart36, retrieved on 30 October 2008

v • d • e

Articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

General principles

Article 1: Freedom, Egalitarianism, Dignity and Brotherhood Article 2: Universality of rights

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

Article 1 and 2: Right to freedom from discrimination · Article 3: Right to life, liberty and security of person · Article 4: Freedom from slavery · Article 5: Freedom from torture and cruel and unusual punishment · Article 6: Right to personhood · Article 7: Equality before the law · Article 8: Right to effective remedy from the law · Article 9: Freedom from arbitrary arrest, detention and exile · Article 10: Right to a fair trial · Article 11.1: Presumption of innocence · Article 11.2: Prohibition of retrospective law · Article 12: Right to privacy · Article 13: Freedom of movement · Article 14: Right of asylum · Article 15: Right to a nationality · Article 16: Right to marriage and family life · Article 17: Right to property · Article 18: Freedom of thought, conscience and religion · Article 19: Freedom of opinion and expression · Article 20.1: Freedom of assembly · Article 20.2: Freedom of association · Article 21.1: Right to participation in government · Article 21.2: Right of equal access to public office · Article 21.3: Right to universal suffrage

International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

Article 1 and 2: Right to freedom from discrimination · Article 22: Right to social security · Article 23.1: Right to work · Article 23.2: Right to equal pay for equal work · Article 23.3: Right to just remuneration · Article 23.4: Right to join a trade union · Article 24: Right to rest and leisure · Article 25.1: Right to an adequate standard of living · Article 25.2: Right to special care and assistance for mothers and children · Article 26.1: Right to education · Article 26.2: Human rights education · Article 26.3: Right to choice of education · Article 27.1: Right to participate in culture · Article 27.2: Right to intellectual property

Context, limitations and duties

Article 28: Social order · Article 29.1: Social responsibility · Article 29.2: Limitations of human rights · Article 29.3: The supremacy of the purposes and principles of the United Nations
Article 30: Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.

Category:Human rights · Human rights portal

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