Global Caselaw Database on Statelessness
The Global Caselaw Database on Statelessness was established to strengthen access to jurisprudence on nationality, statelessness, and related human rights issues. It provides a practical resource for lawyers, academics, advocates, and decision-makers, complementing UNHCR and the Open Society Justice Initiative’s ‘Litigating the Right to Nationality: A Guide for Practitioners’ by bringing together decisions from courts and tribunals across different jurisdictions.
The database covers judgments that address statelessness directly, such as where the applicant is stateless or at risk of statelessness.
The Global Caselaw Database on Statelessness is an evolving tool and new cases will be added incrementally.
Want to offer feedback or suggest a case for inclusion in the Database? Contact our team
This initiative has been made possible with the support of UNHCR, the European Network on Statelessness, and Mallesons.
12 cases found
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Advisory Opinion on Proposed Amendments to the Naturalization Provision of the Constitution of Costa Rica
Date of decision: 19 January 1984
Region/country: Americas / Costa Rica
The Court held: There was no violation of Article 20 (right to nationality) in the proposed amendments (5–1 decision). The preferential treatment based on regional affinity was acceptable(Unanimous) Differentiation between natural-born and naturalized Central Americans/Ibero-Americans is not discriminatory (5–1; Judge Buergenthal dissenting) Language and civic requirements are not discriminatory per se (5–1; Judge Piza dissenting) Gender-specific naturalization through marriage is discriminatory and violates the Convention…
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Attorney General (Appellant) v Shannon Tyrek Rolle and 4 others (Respondents) (The Bahamas)
Date of decision: 04 May 2023
Region/country: Americas / The Bahamas
The Board dismissed the Attorney General’s appeal and held that the Constitution confers citizenship at birth to children born in The Bahamas whose mother is unmarried and not a citizen of The Bahamas and a father who is a citizen. Each of the Attorney General’s three overarching submissions are addressed below. Common law presumption The Board rejected the common law presumption argument advanced by the…
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Attorney-General v Dow
Date of decision: 03 July 1992
Region/country: Africa / Botswana
On Standing The Court held that the Respondent had standing to bring her application. This was on the basis of her parental relationship with the affected children, and the resulting impact on the respondent of the alleged discrimination. On the Merits The majority of the Court (Schreiner and Puckrin JJA dissenting) held that Section 4 of the Act was unconstitutional. The Court’s reasoning focused on…
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East African Asians v The United Kingdom
Date of decision: 14 December 1973
Region/country: Europe / United Kingdom
The Commission considered that the six applications brought by British protected persons must be distinguished from the 25 cases of CUKCs as British protected persons, according to English law, are not British subjects and remained subject to immigration control under the 1962 Act. The Commission held that the legislation was not discriminatory and did not constitute ‘degrading treatment’ under Article 3 in relation to British…
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Genovese v. Malta
Date of decision: 11 October 2011
Region/country: Europe / Malta
The Court first dismissed the Government’s preliminary objections, holding that the case concerned the Applicant’s eligibility for nationality before the 2007 amendments. Therefore, his failure to apply after those amendments was irrelevant. It also found that the Applicant had properly raised an Article 14 complaint in conjunction with both private and family life under Article 8 before the domestic courts. The Court then held that…
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Rzecznik Praw Obywatelskich
Date of decision: 24 June 2022
Region/country: Europe / Poland
The CJEU first noted that, under Article 20(1) TFEU, every person holding the nationality of a Member State is a citizen of the Union and, since it is not disputed that S.R.S.-D. has Polish nationality, she enjoys Union citizenship [34]. Article 21(1) TFEU guarantees every citizen of the Union the right to move and reside freely within the territory of the Member States (paragraphs 35-37).…
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S.N. and E.R. v. North Macedonia
Date of decision: 24 February 2020
Region/country: Europe / North Macedonia
Admissibility The Committee majority considered it was not precluded from considering the communication under Article 4(1) of the Operational Protocol. Therefore, the Committee declared the communication admissible in so far as it raised issues under Article 2(d), 2(f), 12(1), 12(2), 14(2)(b) and 14(2)(h) of the Convention. The dissenting member (Gunnar Bergby) dissented on the basis that the communication should have been found to be inadmissible…
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Sessions, Attorney General v Morales-Santana
Date of decision: 12 June 2017
Region/country: Americas / United States of America
The Supreme Court affirmed the Court of Appeals’ decision that the Equal Protection Principle had been violated but it overturned the Court of Appeals’ remedy finding. The majority opinion was written by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Anthony Kennedy, Justice Stephen Breyer, Justice Sonia Sotomayor and Justice Elena Kagan. The Supreme Court determined that the different physical…
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Supreme Administrative Court, Case II OPS 1/19
Date of decision: 02 December 2019
Region/country: Europe / Poland
The Supreme Administrative Court recalled the dominant position in legal literature, which is that transcription is not in itself a registration, it is a declaratory act that merely reproduces and copies a foreign civil status record. It does not have any constitutive effect. As a rule, an act submitted for transcription is only verified with regards to determination of paternity. The law does not provide…
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Supreme Administrative Court, Case II OSK 2552/16
Date of decision: 10 October 2018
Region/country: Europe / Poland
Without questioning the validity of the application of the public order clause, the Supreme Administrative Court noted that the concept of public order as a justification for a deviation from the basic rule of transcription should be interpreted narrowly, considering carefully the specificities of each case under consideration and assessing the seriousness of actual threats to one or more of the fundamental interests of society.…
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This initiative has been made possible with the support of UNHCR, the European Network on Statelessness, and Mallesons.