22-JAN-1991 14:50
DIRECTOR OF ADM.
852 877 0802
P.37
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NY.L. SCH. J. INT'L & Comp. L.
[Vol. 5
time of the British takeover and all persons born thereafter in Hong Kong as "Citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies" holding Hong Kong British passports." The remaining two million resident Chinese are considered non-British nationals permitted to reside in Hong Kong as certificate of identity (CI) holders.
Over the past forty years, British nationality law has undergone several changes, with each new version holding different nationality and immigration implications for its colonies." The most recent law is the British Nationality Act of 1981 (BNA),11" which seeks to “define the British national identity in specific legal terms and to restrict Brit- ish citizenship to those with close connections with the United King- dom." This is accomplished by dividing British nationality into three classes of citizenship, and by severely restricting a parent's abil- ity to bequeath British citizenship.11*
Hong Kong residents are relegated to "British Dependent Territo- ries Citizenship" (BDTC) status, which was granted on "Commence- ment Day” (January 1, 1983) to all persons born in a British Depen- dent Territory. Thus, all Hong Kong British passport holders received BDTC designation. Under the BNA, however, there is no restriction on dual nationality for BDTC.120 Although in international law those
Note, supra note 112, at 112-13.
114. See The British Nationality Act, 1948; C. Parry, Nationality and Citizenship Laws of the Commonwealth and of the Republic of Ireland 152, 230 (1957); P. Wrs- LEY-SMITH, Unequal Treaty 1989-1997: China, Great Britain and Hong Kong's New Territories 142-46 (1980).
115. For the earlier historical development of the British nationality laws, see M. Jones, British Nationality Law and Practice (1947); C. Parry, supra note 114, pt. 2. 116. For a general discussion of the 1981 British Nationality Act and its recent pred- ecessors, see Blake. Citizenship, Law and the State: The British Nationality Act 1981, 45 MODERN L.R. 179 (1982); Fransman, Patriality: Its Redeployment as British Citizen- ship Under the British Nationality Act 1981–1, New L.J.. Aug. 5, 1983, at 691; White & Hampson, British Nationality Law-Proposed Changes, 30 Int'l & Comp. L.Q. 247 (1981); White, Nationality Law and the British Nationality Act 1981, J.L. Soc'y ScOT.. July, 1983, at 267, 302; and I. Stanbrook, supra note 10.
117. I STANBROOK, supra note 10, at 137. See British Nationality Act, 1981, gen. note. 118. British Nationality Act, ch. 61, § 17.
119. Id. § 23.
120. The British Nationality Act, 1981, I 15(1) states:
A child born in a British dependent territory on or after Commencement Day will be a British Dependent Territories citizen at birth if at the time of birth one of his parents is a British Dependent Territories citizen or is settled in A British dependent territory.
In this context a parent may be either the mother or the father. If one of the parents is a British citizen, any British Citizenship deriving from that parentage (usually British Citizenship by Descent) will also be possessed at birth together with the British Dependent Territories Citizenship derived from the other par-
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