Back in 2015, five individuals were deprived of their French nationality. These five individuals challenged the revocation decrees before the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHRts). The decision in Ghoumid and others v. France was issued on 26 June 2020. The ECtHRts failed to recognise any violation of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. Worse, it created a “grey hole,” i.e., formal protection of the rule of law which is substantially inconsistent. Read More …

The continuing delinquency of the existence of British National (Overseas) status as a class of British nationality that confers no right of abode in the UK itself. What more could the UK Government do and why?

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In May 2020, UNHCR released its long-awaited Guidelines on Statelessness No.5: Loss and Deprivation of Nationality under Articles 5-9 of the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. The new Guidelines represent the official UNHCR position on the obligations of states to avoid statelessness as they deprive a person of nationality (by executive act) or provide for its loss (automatic, if certain conditions are fulfilled).

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A chamber of the German Constitutional Court decided a case concerned with access to German citizenship for a descendant of a Jewish German who had been stripped of his German citizenship by the Nazis. The chamber decision finds that a long established, narrow naturalisation practice vis-à-vis the offspring of those who have been robbed their German nationality by the Nazis is unconstitutional.

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A European Union citizen by birth and nationality has found herself stateless at the request of the Republic of Austria.

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The case C-118/20 JY v. Wiener Landesregierung, concerning the revocation of a guarantee of the grant of Austrian nationality, is more than a case on loss of EU citizenship. It is the first case where the CJEU will have to rule on the acquisition of EU citizenship.

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Our new study shows that, as of January 2020, all but two of the 28 Member States grant citizenship to children born in the State who would otherwise be stateless, and that such provision has expanded slightly. Yet only eleven Member States grant such children citizenship unconditionally and automatically.

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When it comes to investment migration, the pandemic has underscored the key differences between citizenship by investment and residence by investment, so often treated together – even conflated – in the literature, as well as the distinction between citizenship and mere passports. It also raises questions about how supply and demand will transform in this unusual market. What does the pandemic mean for millionaire mobility through investment migration?

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There is no such thing as a European code regulating access to (and loss of) European citizenship. Whoever wants to know how to gain or lose EU citizenship, has to carefully read through the legislation of 27 different EU Member States. The fact that the number of Member States recently decreased by one is of little help.

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Will the sale of passports die out as a result of decreased mobility and new economic realities, or will the industry successfully thrive on the virus, advertising ‘pandemic’ passports as risk insurance?

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