Redirected from British Nationality Law
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When the British Empire came into existence, there remained a single category of nationality: British subject. British subjects included not only persons within the United Kingdom, but those throughout the British Empire, in the colonies and the self-governing dominions (namely Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada and Newfoundland). The law on nationality was spread across many statutes, and much of it was unwritten.
This changed with the adoption of the "British Nationality and Status of Aliens Act 1914". This codified for the first time the law relating to British nationality. However, it did not mark a major change in the substantive content of the law. This was to wait until 1948.
Thus the British Nationality Act 1948 provided for a new status of 'Citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies' (CUKC), consisting of all those British subjects who had a close relationship (either through birth or descent) with the United Kingdom and its remaining colonies. Each other Commonwealth country did likewise, and also established its own citizenship.
The CUKCs and the citizens of the other Commonwealth countries retained under the 1948 act the status of British subjects, for which the act also introduced the term "Commonwealth citizen".
The 1948 act also introduced a new form of British citizenship, "British subject without citizenship", for those who held British subject status prior to the passage of the act but did not acquire CUKC status nor the citizenship of any other Commonwealth country. They were thus granted a limited form of British nationality, to prevent them becoming [[stateless]; however if they acquired any other nationality they would automatically lose their status as British subjects without citizenship.
However, this was recognized as only a temporary solution, so the British government embarked on a major reform of the law, resulting in the British Nationality Act 1981.
In August 2001 the British Government introduced a bill, the British Overseas Territories Bill 2001, that renames "British Dependent Territories" to "British Overseas Territories"; and hence "British Dependent Territories Citizenship" to "British Overseas Territories Citizenship". This change is supposed to reflect the no longer "dependent" status of these territories. It will probably create confusion due to the close similarity between the terms "British Overseas Citizen" and "British Overseas Territories Citizen".
The act also renamed the status of "British subject without citizenship" to that of plain "British subject", and ended the use of the term "British subject" to refer to citizens of a Commonwealth country, though the term "Commonwealth citizen" could be used in that regard.
British Protected Persons are those that had a connection with a former British Protectorate, Protected State, League of Nations mandate or United Nations Trust Territory.
British Overseas Citizens, by contrast, are those that have such a relationship with former British colonies. (Protectorates, Protected States, Mandates and Trust Territories were never, legally speaking, British colonies.)
A British Protected Person will lose that status upon acquiring any other nationality or citizenship.
Thus there are at present six different types of British nationality: British subject status, British Citizenship, British Dependent Territories Citizenship, British Overseas Citizenship, British National Overseas, and British Protected Person.
On July 4, 2002 the Home Office made the following announcement.
Person acquiring citizenship by method (2) are called citizens by descent, while citizens acquiring citizenship by methods (1), (3) or (4) are called citizens otherwise than by descent. Only citizens otherwise than by descent can pass on their citizenship to their children automatically; citizens by descent can only pass on citizenship to their children by registering them.
Registration is a simpler method of acquiring citizenship than naturalisation, but only certain people are eligible for it.
Some persons are eligible for registration as citizens automatically, but this registration must be done before their eighteenth birthday: the illegitimate children of a father with British citizenship, children not born in the UK of citizens by descent, and those whose mother but not father had CUKC status and where born prior to the entry into force of the British Nationality Act 1981.
Non-British nationals holding right of abode are eligible for British citizenship by registration after 5 years residence in the United Kingdom.
While the British Nationality Act 1981 provides that one is a citizen by descent if one's mother has British citizenship, or if one's father has British citizenship and they were born in wedlock, the British Nationality Act 1948 provided that one would be a CUKC only if one was born in wedlock to a CUKC father. Thus men could pass on their CUKC status to their children, but not women. The British Nationality Act 1981 remedied this in relation to future births, but did not grant British citizenship to those deprived of CUKC status by operation of the sexist British legislation. Those persons so deprived could become citizens by registration, but only before their eighteenth birthday. However, these people while they are not British nationals, still possess right of abode in the United Kingdom.
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