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So too do the academic writers recognise the importance of the passport as the indicia of the right to protection of a national ; for instance:
(iv) "This rule (that every state holds the right of
(v)
III.
protection over its nationals abroad) may be asserted by the holder of a passport which is for him the outward title of his rights.": Oppenheim's International Law (5th Edn.) p.546
See to the same effect: Lord Diplock Passports & Protection 32 Grotius Transactions p. 56; Professor Lauterpacht : Diplomatic Protection 9 CLJ 337.
CONCLUSIONS
A passport fulfills many functions: it is an internationa identity card; an assurance to immigration officers that the holder has a place of abode ; it may carry visas;
it may record for exchange control purposes the currency issued to the holder; and so on.
But one of its prime purposes, as the then Attorney General said to the House of Lords, is that "in its normal functioning it puts into operation the Crown's protective system". The right to protection, albeit unenforceable by legal action is, under English law, enjoyed by all those owing allegiance to the Crown. Under international law, states are entitled as against other states to protect all their "nationals". In both contexts it is nationality not citizenship which forms the class; indeed in many cases heard by the International Court the issue has been whether the person whom a state has sought to protect was in fact its "national".
It is significant that during the Parliamentary passage of the Nationality Bill, Ministers stated that B.D.T.C.s would be considered to be "U.K. nationals", and that, as "U.K. national they would enjoy the protection internationally of the United Kingdom (see also F.C.0. Telegram 370 of 17th May 1982).
It is clear that the British Nationality Act does not expressly or by implication forbid the use of the term in passports. The Act has abolished the term "British subject" for the purposes of municipal law and introduced different categories of citizen with different rights under that law. But it has in no way affected the importance of nationality in international law.
It is clearly appropriate therefore in these circumstances that the passport should contain a statement of the status which gives rise to the right to protection. That status is "British (or U.K.) National", not B.D.T.C., the latter term being meaningless in the particular context in international law.
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