Effect of Naturalisation upon previous Citizenship.
§ 306. Since the Law of Nations does not comprise any rules concerning naturalisation, the effect of naturalisation upon previous citizenship is exclusively a matter of the Municipal Law of the States concerned. Some States, as Great Britain,[627] have legislated that one of their subjects becoming naturalised abroad loses thereby his previous nationality; but other States, as Germany, have not done this. Further, some States, as Great Britain again, deny every effect to the naturalisation granted by them to an alien whilst he is staying on the territory of the State whose subject he was previously to his naturalisation, unless at the time of naturalisation he was no longer a subject of such State. But other States do not make this provision. Be that as it may, there can be no doubt that a person who is naturalised abroad and temporarily or permanently returns into the country of his origin, can be held responsible[628] for all acts done there at the time before his naturalisation abroad.
[627] Formerly Great Britain upheld the rule nemo potest exuere patriam, but Section 6 of the Naturalisation Act, 1870, does away with that rule. Its antithesis is the rule ne quis invitus civitate mutetur, neve in civitate maneat invitus (Cicero, "Pro Balbo," c. 13, § 31; see Rattigan, "Private International Law" (1895), p. 29, No. 21).
[628] Many instructive cases concerning this matter are reported by Wharton, II. §§ 180 and 181, and Moore, III. §§ 401-407. See also Hall, § 71, where details concerning the practice of many States are given with regard to their subjects naturalised abroad.
Naturalisation in Great Britain.
§ 307. The present law of Great Britain[629] concerning Naturalisation is mainly contained in the Naturalisation Acts of 1870, 1874, and 1895.[630] Aliens may on their application become naturalised by a certificate of naturalisation in case they have resided in the United Kingdom or have been in the service of the British Crown for a term of not less than five years, and in case they have the intention to continue residing within the United Kingdom or serving under the Crown. But naturalisation may be refused without giving a reason therefor (section 7). British possessions may legislate on their own account concerning naturalisation (section 16), and aliens so naturalised are for all international purposes[631] British subjects. Where the Crown enters into a convention with a foreign State to the effect that the subjects of such State who have been naturalised in Great Britain may divest themselves of their status as British subjects, such naturalised British subjects can through a declaration of alienage shake off the acquired British nationality (section 3). Naturalisation of the husband includes that of his wife, and naturalisation of the father, or mother in case she is a widow, includes naturalisation of such children as have during infancy become resident in the United Kingdom at the time of their father's or mother's naturalisation (section 10). Neither the case of children who are not resident within the United Kingdom or not resident with their father in the service of the Crown abroad at the time of the naturalisation of their father or widowed mother, nor the case of children born abroad after the naturalisation of the father is mentioned in the Naturalisation Act. It is, therefore, to be taken for granted that such children are not[632] British subjects, except children born of a naturalised father abroad in the service of the Crown.[633]
[629] As regards naturalisation in the United States of America, see Moore, III. §§ 381-389, and Dyne, "Naturalisation in the United States" (1907).
[630] 33 Vict. c. 14; 35 and 36 Vict. c. 39; 58 & 59 Vict. c. 43. See Foote, "Private International Jurisprudence," 3rd ed. (1904), pp. 1-51; Westlake, "Private International Law," 4th ed. (1905), §§ 284-287; Dicey, "Conflict of Laws," 2nd ed. (1908), pp. 172-191.
[631] See Hall, "Foreign Powers and Jurisdiction," §§ 20 and 21, especially concerning naturalisation in India.
[632] See Hall, "Foreign Powers and Jurisdiction," § 19.