Nationality

Concept of Nationality:
Nationality of an individual is a subject of a certain state, and therefore, its citizen. It is not for
international law but for municipal law to determine who is and who is not the subject. But Article 1 of
the Hague Convention of 1930 relating to 'nationality laws', nationality is for each state. In general, it
is the law of nation concerned, those who enjoy political rights and are named citizens.

Nationality in the sense of citizenship of a certain state meaning membership of certain nation.

Definition:
The term nationality is derived from the word 'national' which simply means the subject of a particular
state. According to Howard, nationality is the status of a national person who is attached to a state.

Hyde says that it refers to the relationship between a state and an individual.

Nationality and Emigration:

As emigration involves the voluntary removal of an individual from his home state with the intention of
residing abroad. Emigration is, in fact, entirely a matter of internal legislation of the different states.
Every state can fix the conditions under which emigrants lose their nationality. The laws of nations
does not yet grant a right of emigration to every individual, although it is frequently maintained that it
is a national right of every individual to emigrate from his own state. It is a moral right which could
find a place in any international right of man.

Modes of Acquiring Nationality:

There are five modes of acquiring nationality, i.e, by birth, through naturalisation, through
redintegration, through subjugation and through cession of territory.

(a) Nationality by birth: The first and chief mode of acquiring nationality is by birth; indeed, the
acquisition of nationality by another mode is exception, since the vast majority of mankind
acquires nationality by birth, and does not change it afterwards.
(b) Nationality through naturalisation: The most important mode of acquiring nationality besides
by birth is that of naturalisation in the wider sense of the term. Through naturalisation, an alien
by birth acquires the nationality of the naturalising state. According to the municipal law of the
different states naturalisation may take place through six different acts – namely, marriage,
legitimation, option, acquisition of domicile, appointment as government official, grant on
application. Thus, according to the municipal law of most states, an alien female marrying a
subject of such state become thereby ipso facto naturalised. Thus, father, according to the
 municipal law of several states, an illegitimate child born of an alien mother, and therefore an
alien itself, becomes ipso facto naturalised through the father marrying the mother, and thereby
legitimating the child.
(c) Nationality through redintegration: The third mode of acquiring nationality is called
redintegration or resumption. Such individuals as have been natural-born subjects of a state, but
have lost their original nationality through naturalisation abroad or for some other cause, may
recover their original nationality on fulfilling certain conditions. This is called redintegration or
resumption.
(d) Nationality through subjugation and by cession: The fourth and fifth modes of acquiring
nationality are by subjugation after conquest and by cession of territory, the inhabitants of the
subjugated and the ceded territory acquiring ipso facto by the subjugation or cession the
nationality of the state which acquires the territory.

Modes of Losing Nationality:

There are five modes of losing nationality, although all five are no means recognised by all the states.
These are release, deprivation, expiration, option and substitution:

(a) Release: Some states, such as Germany, give their citizens the right to ask to be released from
their nationality. Such releases, if granted, denationalises the released individual.
(b) Deprivation: For example, according to the municipal law of some states, as, for instance,
Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Holland, Portugal, and Spain, the fact that a citizen enters into foreign
civil or military service without permission of his sovereign deprives him of his nationality.
(c) Expiration: Some states have legislated that citizenship expires in the case of such of their
subjects as have left the country and stayed abroad a certain length of time. For instance, a
naturalised citizen of United States of America as a rule loses his citizenship by residing for two
years in the country of his origin or for five years in any other foreign state. Or, again, the
American citizenship of a woman who acquired it by marriage to an American man expires in
case she is living abroad at the time when her husband dies or her marriage is dissolved, unless
within one year after such an event she registers as an American citizen before the US consul.
(d) Option: For example, some states, Great Britain for instance, which declare a child born of
foreign parents on their territory to their natural-born subject, although he / she becomes at the
same time, according to the municipal law of the home state of the parents, a subject of such
state, give the right to such child to make, after coming of age, a declaration that he desires to
cease to be a citizen.
(e) Substitution: According to the law of many states, as, for instance, Great Britain, the
nationality of their subjects is extinguished ipso facto by their naturalisation abroad, be it
through marriage, grant on application, or otherwise. Some states, however, do not object to
their citizens acquiring another nationality besides that which already possess.