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, or connection with, 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