Recently, a lower Dutch Court decided on the admissibility of an appeal against one of the decisions concerning the Dutch Alcolock case, in which the Dutch Supreme Court held that imposing an administrative law sanction (the installation of an alcolock) precluded criminal law punishment (for driving under the influence) and vice versa. Read More …
On the 12th of June the ECHR declared a violation of the right to private life (article 8) of two individuals who were left stateless in Russia for several years as a result of bureaucratic deficiencies not attributable to them. The judgment strengthens even further the Court’s earlier case law on the connection between nationality rights, statelessness, and article 8 of the ECHR. Read More …
Unlike his younger brother Granit, who plays for the Swiss national team, in 2014 the Basel-born Taulant Xhaka opted to play for Albania, the country in which his parents were born. The two brothers did not play against each other at this year’s FIFA World Cup in Russia, but Granit Xhaka and the Swiss team crossed paths with several players who had previously been on the country’s youth squad. Read More …
Mr. Hoti arrived to Croatia nearly forty years ago – 12 years before Croatia was even established as an independent state. Last week the European Court of Human Rights found that Croatia’s failure to ensure stability of residence for Mr. Hoti amounted to a violation of article 8 of the ECHR – the right to private and family life. Read More …
Commonwealth citizens who came to the UK in the period after the Second World War are now close to retirement age and their right to live in the UK has come under challenge, with catastrophic consequences for some. The story has become a major political scandal and has led to the resignation of the Home Secretary Amber Rudd. It is a rare instance of public and mainstream media support for migrants. Read More …
March 2018 saw a series of bold rulings by African courts to protect both prominent politicians and ordinary people against excessive discretion in decisions relating to the right to a nationality. Most notably, the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, in its first decision touching on nationality administration, found Tanzania in violation of norms against arbitrary deprivation of nationality. Read More …
People who successfully apply for British citizenship are seldom asked to recount their stories. They simply carry on with their lives. But how does it really feel to go through the process of becoming a British citizen? What does achieving citizenship mean to those who gain it? How does it affect their sense of identity and belonging? To answer these questions for my new book, Britishness, Belonging and Citizenship I spoke to 30 successful applicants about their experiences. Read More …
The decennial census – one of the largest undertakings of the United States government – is generally not on the mind of the average American. This will likely change, however, as new proposed questions of citizenship and immigration catapult the 2020 census to renewed political significance. Read More …
On 23 February 2018, the Overseas Electoral Bill (the Bill’), which abolishes a 15 year limit to the franchise for non-resident citizens, passed second reading with a clear majority in the UK House of Commons and will now proceed for scrutiny by a Public Bill Committee. It was presented as a private member’s bill by Glyn Davies MP (Conservative) and sponsored, inter alia, by Mike Gapes MP (Labour) and Layla Moran MP (Liberal Democrats). Read More …
The ‘naturalisation rate’ is a commonly used indicator to measure the ratio of the number of persons acquiring citizenship of a country over the stock of non-national population in a country; as such, it is often used to measure the relative inclusiveness of a country’s naturalisation policy. According to Eurostat statistics, in Hungary the average naturalisation rates in the period 2011-15 was 7.8 percent, one of the highest rates reported in the European Union. Read More …
