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Some Aspects of Statelessness Since World War I

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2013

Jane Perry Clark Carey
Jane Perry Clark Carey
Affiliation:
Barnard College
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Extract

Statelessness, in its technical sense, is the result of denationalization by the country of origin of a person who has acquired no citizenship elsewhere. A stateless person is also referred to as staatenlos, apatride. Protection and assistance may be withdrawn by the country of a person's origin without juridical suppression of that person's nationality. Such a person outside his own country, though not fully denationalized, is in a position in some measure akin to that of the stateless, as neither has the protection of any government.

Although many refugees are stateless, statelessness is not the essential quality of a refugee, who is defined in accepted international usage as a person who for political reasons has been driven from his country of origin, or who fears the political consequences of his return. He may be stateless, or, although not technically denationalized, may have lost the protection of his government by refusing to return home when the possibility was presented. As a person without governmental protection, he loses the advantages of international rights which depend for enforcement on the action of his home government. Furthermore, an alien who is not a national of any state is denied many of the privileges of a citizen, granted reciprocally through treaties. Such treaties give to the citizens of one state privileges in other states party to the treaties, including the right to work, the benefits of social insurance (such as workmen's compensation laws), and the right to education.

Type
International Affairs
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 40 , Issue 1 , February 1946 , pp. 113 - 123
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1946

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References

1 Conflicts of nationality legislation of the countries of a child s parents may occasionally cause statelessness at birth. This subject, however, is not discussed here.

2 Cf. Preuss, Lawrence, “International Law and Deprivation of Nationality,” Georgetown Law Journal, Vol. 23, p. 250 (Jan., 1935)Google Scholar; “Jurisprudence américaine en matière de droit international (1933–35),” Revue Générale de Droit International Public, Vol. 43 (1936), p. 589 ff.; Stauffenberg, Berthold Schenck Graf von, “Die Entziehung der Stattsangehörigkeit und das Völkerrecht,” Zeitschrift fur auslän disches öffentliches Recht und Völkerrecht, Vol. 4 (1934), pp. 261–276.Google Scholar

3 Holborn, Louise W., “The Legal Status of Political Refugees, 1920–1938,” American Journal of International Law, Vol. 32, p. 680.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Cf. Chamberlain, Joseph, “Without A Country,” Survey Graphic, Vol. 34, p. 85 (Mar., 1945).Google Scholar

4 Abel, Paul, “Denationalization,” Modern Law Review, Vol. 6 (Dec., 1942), p. 58 ff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Taracouzio, , The Soviet Union and International Law (New York, 1935), pp. 80–122Google Scholar; Colaneri, A., De La Condition des Sans Patrie (Paris, 1932), pp. 62–69Google Scholar; Scheftel, V., “L'Apatride des Refugies Russes,” Journal de Droit International, Vol. 61, pp. 36–99 (1934)Google Scholar; Holbom, op. cit.; Sandifer, D. V., “Soviet Citizenship,” American Journal of International Law (1936), p. 614 ff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5 Abel, op. cit., p. 66.

6 Holborn, op. cit., p. 680.

7 MacCartney, C. A., National States and National Minorities (1934), p. 392.Google Scholar

8 Holborn, op. cit., p. 686.

9 Holborn, op. cit.; Abel, op. cit., p. 56.

10 Holborn, op. cit., p. 680; Nitti, G., “Les Emigrés Italiens en France,” Revue General de Droit International Public (1929), pp. 739–759.Google Scholar A. Colaneri, op. cit., p. 31.

11 Nitti, op. cit.

12 Art. 3.

13 Royal Decree Law No. 25, not published until Oct. 20, 1944, Gazetto Ufficiale.

14 RGBI I, 480.

15 RGBI I, 1146, 1935; cf. Sec. 3.

16 Nov. 14, 1935; RGBI I, 1933.

17 Hope-Simpson, , Refugees (1939), p. 235.Google Scholar

18 Cf. Paul Abel, op. cit., p. 59; “The New German Denationalization Law,” Free Austria, Apr., 1942; Kauffman, A., “Denationalization and Expropriation,” Law Journal, Mar. 21, 1942Google Scholar; Wolff, Ernst, “Die Ausbürgerung der Juden,” Die Zeitung, Feb. 20, 1942.Google Scholar

19 Abel, op. cit., p. 59.

20 Speech of U. S. Commissioner of Immigration and Naturalization, Feb., 1944.

21 Jan. 27, 1938, “Decree Revising the Citizenship of Jews in Rumania.”

22 Starr, Joshua, “Jewish Citizenship in Rumania,” Jewish Social Studies, III, No. 1 (1941), p. 77.Google Scholar

23 Ibid., p. 78.

24 Law No. A-47586, GR 92 from Rumania, Dec. 21, 1944.

25 Art. III, Journal Officiel, Aug. 10, 1944.

26 Aug. 3, 5, 6, 1940, respectively.

27 Decree of Apr., 1931, Art. III. Taracuzio, T. A., The Soviet Union and International Law (p. 83)Google Scholar states that persons who claimed foreign citizenship, but were unable to prove it, were subjected to inconsistent treatment, since in 1924 they were relieved of military service required of citizens of the USSR and yet had to pay the same visa fees to leave the USSR as those charged Soviet citizens.

28 Decree of Sept. 7, 1940, Art. III.

29 Ibid.

30 Ibid., Art. IV.

31 Some were also listed as “subjects” of the USSR.

32 Decree of Supreme Council of the USSR, Nov. 29, 1939 (Translation from Polish).

33 The word race is used here non-anthropologically to refer to persons speaking Polish and therefore identifiable as Poles, as opposed to non-Polish-speaking persons (i.e., Ukrainians, White Russians, persons speaking local dialects), and Jews. The word “nationality” is sometimes used instead of race in this sense, but it leads to even greater confusion.

34 Ibid.

35 Cf. Citizenship Laws of Aug. 19, 1938, Art. III.

36 Translation of decree as published in the Daily Digest of World Broadcasts, No. 1815, July 6, 1944 (BBC Monitoring Service); translation of article in July 13, issue of Dzienink Polski.

37 Decree of Supreme Council of USSR, Nov. 29, 1939; cf. Law of Aug. 19, 1938, Art. III.

38 Rumanian Home Service broadcast, Oct. 25, 1944.