British Nationality Act 1948

British Nationality Act 1948[1]
Act of Parliament
Long titleAn Act to make provision for British nationality and for citizenship of the United Kingdom and Colonies and for purposes connected with the matters aforesaid.
Citation11 & 12 Geo. 6. c. 56
Territorial extent British Empire
Dates
Royal assent30 July 1948
Commencement1 January 1949
Other legislation
AmendsAct of Settlement 1701
Repeals/revokes
  • Princess Sophia Naturalization Act 1705
  • Naturalization Act 1872
  • British Nationality and Status of Aliens Act 1918
  • British Nationality and Status of Aliens Act 1922
  • British Nationality and Status of Aliens Act 1933
  • British Nationality and Status of Aliens Act 1943
Repealed byBritish Nationality Act 1981
Status: Partially repealed
Text of statute as originally enacted
Revised text of statute as amended

The British Nationality Act 1948 (11 & 12 Geo. 6. c. 56) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom on British nationality law which defined British nationality by creating the status of "Citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies" (CUKC) as the sole national citizenship of the United Kingdom and all of its colonies.

The Act, which came into effect on 1 January 1949, was passed in consequence of the 1947 Commonwealth conference on nationality and citizenship, which had agreed that each of the Commonwealth member states would legislate for its own citizenship, distinct from the shared status of "Commonwealth citizen" (formerly known as "British subject").

The CUKC consolidated British citizenship by putting Britain's colonial subjects on equal footing with those living in the British Isles, and was likely an attempt to avoid decolonisation. Similar legislation was passed in most of the other Commonwealth countries. The Act was largely the result of a bipartisan ideological commitment to "a definition of citizenship including Britons and colonial subjects under the same nationality" and at a time "before large-scale migration was considered possible".[2]

It formed the basis of the United Kingdom's nationality law until the British Nationality Act 1981, which came into force in 1983. Most of its provisions have been repealed or otherwise superseded by subsequent legislation, though parts remain in force.

  1. ^ Short title as conferred by s. 34 of the Act; the modern convention for the citation of short titles omits the comma after the word "Act".
  2. ^ Randall Hansen, Citizenship and Immigration in Post-war Britain, 2000.