Nationality

This article is about legal status between a country and its subjects. For a person's sense of belonging to a nation, see National identity. For citizenship of a country, see Citizenship.
Legal status of persons
Birthright
Nationality
Immigration
Conflict of laws and
private international law
Preliminaries
Definitional elements
Connecting factors
Substantive legal areas
Enforcement

Nationality is the legal status of belonging to a particular nation, defined as a group of people organized in one country, under one legal jurisdiction, or as a group of people who are united on the basis of culture.[1][2][3]

In international law, nationality is a legal identification establishing the person as a subject, a national, of a sovereign state. It affords the state jurisdiction over the person and affords the person the protection of the state against other states.[4] The rights and duties of nationals vary from state to state,[5] and are often complemented by citizenship law, in some contexts to the point where citizenship is synonymous with nationality.[6] However, nationality differs technically and legally from citizenship, which is a different legal relationship between a person and a country. The noun "national" can include both citizens and non-citizens. The most common distinguishing feature of citizenship is that citizens have the right to participate in the political life of the state, such as by voting or standing for election. However, in most modern countries all nationals are citizens of the state, and full citizens are always nationals of the state.[7]

In international law, a "stateless person" is someone who is "not considered as a national by any state under the operation of its law".[8] To address this, Article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that "Everyone has the right to a nationality", and "No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality", even though, by international custom and conventions, it is the right of each state to determine who its nationals are.[9] Such determinations are part of nationality law. In some cases, determinations of nationality are also governed by public international law—for example, by treaties on statelessness or the European Convention on Nationality.[10]

The process of acquiring nationality is called naturalization. Each state determines in its nationality law the conditions (statute) under which it will recognize persons as its nationals, and the conditions under which that status will be withdrawn. Some countries permit their nationals to have multiple nationalities, while others insist on exclusive allegiance.

Due to the etymology of nationality, in older texts or other languages the word "nationality", rather than "ethnicity", is often used to refer to an ethnic group (a group of people who share a common ethnic identity, language, culture, lineage, history, and so forth). Individuals may also be considered nationals of groups with autonomous status that have ceded some power to a larger sovereign state.

Nationality is also employed as a term for national identity, with some cases of identity politics and nationalism conflating the legal nationality as well as ethnicity with a national identity.

  1. ^ "Nationality Definition & Meaning | Britannica Dictionary". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2023-08-18.
  2. ^ Publishers, HarperCollins. "The American Heritage Dictionary entry: nationality". www.ahdictionary.com. Retrieved 2023-08-18.
  3. ^ "nationality". Cambridge Dictionary.
  4. ^ Boll, Alfred Michael (2007). Multiple Nationality And International Law. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. p. 114. ISBN 978-90-04-14838-3. Archived from the original on 2020-07-26. Retrieved 2020-02-19.
  5. ^ Weis, Paul. Nationality and Statelessness in International Law Archived 2016-06-24 at the Wayback Machine. BRILL; 1979 [cited 19 August 2012]. ISBN 9789028603295. p. 29–61.
  6. ^ Nationality and Statelessness: A Handbook for Parliamentarians (PDF). UNHCR and IPU. 2005. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2021-05-01. Retrieved 2020-07-16.
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference Kadelbach was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Refugees, United Nations High Commissioner for. "Refworld | The 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons: Implementation within the European Union Member States and Recommendations for Harmonisation". Refworld. Archived from the original on August 12, 2021. Retrieved July 29, 2021.
  9. ^ Convention on Certain Questions Relating to the Conflict of Nationality Laws Archived 2014-12-26 at the Wayback Machine. The Hague, 12 April 1930. Full text. Article 1, "It is for each State to determine under its own law who are its nationals...".
  10. ^ Spiro, Peter (2011). "A New International Law of Citizenship". American Journal of International Law. 105 (4): 694–746. doi:10.5305/amerjintelaw.105.4.0694. S2CID 143124544. Archived from the original on 2021-12-27. Retrieved 2021-03-30.