Jus sanguinis

( , , ; 'right of blood') is a principle of nationality law by which citizenship is determined or acquired by the nationality or ethnicity of one or both parents. Children at birth may be citizens of a particular state if either or both of their parents have citizenship of that state. It may also apply to national identities of ethnic, cultural, or other origins. Citizenship can also apply to children whose parents belong to a diaspora and were not themselves citizens of the state conferring citizenship. This principle contrasts with '' jus soli'' ('right of soil'), which is solely based on the place of birth.

Today, almost all states apply some combination of ''jus soli'' and ''jus sanguinis'' in their nationality laws to varying degrees. Historically, the most common application of ''jus sanguinis'' is a right of a child to their father's nationality. Today, the vast majority of countries extend this right on an equal basis to the mother. Some apply this right irrespective of the place of birth, while others may limit it to those born in the state. Some countries provide that a child acquires the nationality of the mother if the father is unknown or stateless, and some irrespective of the place of birth. Some such children may acquire the nationality automatically while others may need to apply for a parent's nationality.

Modern development

At the end of the 19th century, the French-German debate on nationality saw the French, such as Ernest Renan, oppose the German conception, exemplified by Johann Fichte, who believed in an "objective nationality", based on blood, race or language. Renan's republican conception, but perhaps also the presence of a German-speaking population in Alsace-Lorraine, explains France's early adoption of ''jus soli''.

Mixed standards

Many nations have a mixture of ''jus sanguinis'' and ''jus soli'', including the United States, Canada, Israel, Greece, the Republic of Ireland, and recently Germany. Today French nationality law narrowly applies ''jus sanguinis,'' but it is still the most common means of passing on citizenship in many continental European nations.

Complications due to imposed boundaries

Some modern European states which arose out of the dissolved Austro-Hungarian or Ottoman empires have huge numbers of ethnic populations outside of their new 'national' boundaries, as do most of the former Soviet states. Such long-standing diasporas do not conform to codified 20th-century European rules of citizenship.

In many cases, ''jus sanguinis'' rights are mandated by international treaty, with citizenship definition imposed by the national and international community. In other cases, minorities are subject to legal and extra-legal persecution and choose to immigrate to their ancestral home country. States offering ''jus sanguinis'' rights to ethnic citizens and their descendants include Italy, Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria, Lebanon, Armenia, Hungary and Romania. Each is required by international treaty to extend those rights.

Current ''Jus sanguinis'' states

Africa

North America

South America

Asia

Europe

}), § 6, specifies that also foreign citizens of states of the Eastern Bloc (and their desdendants), who were persecuted between 1945 and 1990 for their German ethnicity by their respective governments, are entitled to become Germans. The argument was that the Federal Republic of Germany had to administer to their needs because the respective governments in charge of guaranteeing their equal treatment as citizens severely neglected or contravened that obligation. Since 1990 the law has been steadily tightened to limit the number of immigrants each year. It now requires immigrants to prove language skills and cultural affiliation. Article 116(2) entitles persons (and their descendants) who were denaturalised by the Nazi government, to be renaturalised if they wish. Those among them who took their residence in Germany after 8 May 1945, are automatically to be considered German. Both paragraphs (1) and (2) result in a considerable number of Poles and Israelis, residing in Poland and Israel respectively, being concurrently German.
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, A person acquires Hungarian citizenship at birth if at least one parent is a Hungarian citizen. The place of birth is irrelevant. Furthermore, Section 4(3) of the '' Act on Nationality'' permits ethnic Hungarians (defined as persons "at least one of whose relatives in ascendant line was a Hungarian citizen") to obtain citizenship on preferential terms after one year of residence. In addition, the "Status Law" of 2001 grants certain privileges to ethnic Hungarians living in territories that were once part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It permits them to obtain an identification card but does not confer the right to full Hungarian citizenship. According to the latest Citizenship Law adopted in 2010, anybody, possessing certain evidence (certificates, documents) of his or her Hungarian roots from around the World can apply for Hungarian citizenship. The interview is led in Hungarian either in Hungary or at one of the Consulates abroad.
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, Icelandic nationality law
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, Citizenship by descent is automatic where at least one parent was an Irish citizen born on the island of Ireland. Second and subsequent generation descendants require registration of each generation in the Foreign Births Register before the birth of the next; citizenship by descent can be continued indefinitely as long as registration is performed this way.

See also Irish nationality law and twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland.
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, Italian nationality law
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, Maltese nationality law grants citizenship to any person descended from "an ascendant who was born in Malta of a parent who was also born in Malta."
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, Dutch nationality law
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, Polish nationality law. The definition of Polish citizenship has been based for years on article 34 of the Polish Constitution; this article is based on a ''jus sanguinis'' right to citizenship.Englis
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of the Polish Constitution. Moreover, any child born by Polish parent(s) is a ''de jure'' citizen of Poland. In 1967–1968 the Communist State issued to Jews emigrating from Poland to Israel, instead of passports, a so-called travel document which granted them the right to exit Poland but not of re-entering it, in effect taking away their Polish citizenship on the assumption that, in emigrating or traveling to Israel, they renounced it themselves. In a 2005 verdict, the Supreme Administrative Court of Poland ruled that this action was illegal based on the state of law at that time. Consequently, it is now assumed the Jews who emigrated after 1968 have remained Polish citizens and their citizenship will be certified on request.
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, Portuguese nationality law grants nationality to children and grandchildren of Portuguese nationals who are born abroad pending registration or application at a consulate or registration authority offices. ''Ius sanguinis'' nationality to children follows a simple registration procedure, whilst nationality through the grandparental route requires the proof of an effective connection to the Portuguese community. This connection is proved by language proficiency in Portuguese and the lack of aggravated criminal convictions. Nationals from other Portuguese-speaking countries are presumed to have sufficient knowledge of Portuguese pending only for them the lack of criminal convictions for aggravated offences.
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, Romanian nationality law
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, Russian nationality law
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, Persons with at least one Slovak grandparent and "Slovak cultural and language awareness" may apply for an expatriate identity card entitling them to live, work, study and own land in Slovakia. Expatriate status is not full citizenship and does not entitle the holder to vote, but a holder who moves his or her domicile to Slovakia may obtain citizenship under preferential terms. Slovakia grants full Slovak citizenship to children of Slovak parents (one or both parents) irrespective of the place of birth.
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, Spanish nationality law
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, Swiss nationality law is exceptionally restrictive: someone who was born in Switzerland and has spent their entire life there has no automatic right to Swiss citizenship if neither of their parents are Swiss citizens, even if their parents are permanent residents or have themselves spent their entire lives in Switzerland. In fact, the citizenship criteria are simpler for a foreigner with no previous ties to Switzerland who marries a Swiss citizen, than for people born and raised in Switzerland but with foreign parents. Due to Switzerland's high immigrant population, there are more than a million people who were born and have spent their entire lives in Switzerland but are not Swiss citizens due to their parents being immigrants. Some Swiss-born third-generation immigrants even have Swiss-born parents but are not Swiss citizens if neither of their parents have naturalised. To obtain Swiss citizenship, people in this position must undergo naturalisation proceedings, which have a high bar to satisfy the "integration" criterion. The unusual rules hit international headlines in 2017 when a woman born in Switzerland to Turkish parents, who is a native Swiss-German speaker and has spent her entire life in Switzerland, had her citizenship application denied by the local municipality on "integration" grounds as she could not name enough Swiss mountains, cheeses and retail brands, and was deemed not to have gone skiing often enough. The decision was overruled by the cantonal government several months later. In 2017, Swiss voters in a nationwide referendum agreed to relax the citizenship criteria for third-generation immigrants slightly: although they will still not be Swiss citizens at birth and will need to apply for citizenship, they will no longer have to take naturalisation tests or interviews if their parents ''and'' grandparents are long-time permanent residents.
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, Article 8 of the ''Law on Citizenship of Ukraine'' permits any person with at least one Ukrainian grandparent to become a citizen upon renunciation of the former nationality. The " Status of a Foreign Ukrainian" can also be granted to foreign citizens with Ukrainian ethnic or territorial origin to work, study, and immigrate to Ukraine under preferential terms.
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, By birth abroad, which constitutes "by descent" if one of the parents is a British citizen otherwise than by descent (for example by birth, adoption, registration or naturalisation in the UK). British citizenship by descent is only transferable to one generation down from the parent who is a British citizen otherwise than by descent, if the child is born abroad.

Current ''Leges sanguinis'' states

Many countries provide citizenship on preferential terms to individuals with ethnic ties to these countries (so-called ''leges sanguinis'').

See also

*Blood quantum laws
* Bumiputra
*Diaspora politics
* Indigenous rights
*'' Jus soli''
*Nativism (politics)
*Opposition to immigration
* Repatriation laws
*Right of return
*Hereditary title

References

Bibliography

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{{Nationality laws

Human migration
Legal rules with Latin names
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Citizenship
Birthplaces
Anti-immigration politics