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THE NATIONALITY LAW: DISCUSSION
OF POSSIBLE CHANGES
INTRODUCTION
1.
The Government have been reviewing the working of the British Nationality Acts. The chief of these was passed as long ago as 1948, and much has happened since then to suggest that a new nationality law is needed. A discussion paper cannot cover every problem which arises on this complicated subject; but the Government hope that the paper will serve to indicate the major issues for discussion and eventual decision.
2.
The paper does not seek to discuss such matters as the subtle differences between nationality and citizenship but concentrates on practical issues. At present we have a citizenship which does not define those who have a close connection with the United Kingdom; in this respect we are at a disadvantage compared with most other countries.
THE CURRENT NATIONALITY LAW
The British Nationality Act 1948
3.
Our present system of citizenship is unsatisfactory in several ways. To understand it fully, it is necessary to describe how the 1948 Act came to be. Before 1st January 1949 when the 1948 Act came into force, everyone who owed perpetual allegiance to the British Monarch (for example, by birth in the United Kingdom, a Dominion or a Colony) was a British subject. There were also large numbers of people to whom British protection had been granted (British Protected Persons). But the need to identify the people of each self-governing Dominion by means of a distinct national status more narrowly defined than British nationality was increasingly felt in those countries. Eventually, in 1946, Canada created its own citizenship, although still within the framework of British subject status. After a conference held in London in 1947, the other independent countries of the Commonwealth followed suit, as have other countries on achieving their independence within the Commonwealth. Under the new arrangements, each country was to determine who were its citizens, to declare those citizens to be British subjects, and to recognise as British subjects the citizens of other Commonwealth countries. However, each country was left free to decide what this recognition should entail, so that the content of British subject status has come to vary widely within the Commonwealth.
4.
The Act of 1948 introduced these principles into United Kingdom law. It created a citizenship of the United Kingdom and Colonies, with the continuing status of British subject, and laid down rules for its acquisition. It was relatively simple to provide how this status should be acquired in
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