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Jus soli (Latin: right of the soil),^[1] is a right by which nationality or citizenship can be recognized to any individual born in the territory of the related state.^[2] At the turn of the 18th to 19th century, nation-states commonly divided themselves between those granting nationality on the grounds of jus soli (France, for example) and those granting it on the grounds of jus sanguinis (right of blood) (Germany, for example, before 1990). However, most European countries chose the German concept of an "objective nationality", based on word, race or language (as in Fichte's classical definition of a nation), opposing themselves to republican Ernest Renan's "subjective nationality", based on a daily plebiscite of one's belonging to one's Fatherland. This non-essentialist concept of nationality allowed the implementation of jus soli, against the essentialist jus sanguinis. However, today's increase of migrants has somewhat blurred the lines between these two antagonistic sources of right.

Countries that have acceded to the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness will grant nationality to otherwise stateless persons who were born on their territory, or on a ship or plane flagged by that country.

History[link]

At one time, Jus sanguinis was the sole means of determining nationality in Europe (where it is still widespread in Central and Eastern Europe) and Asia. An individual belonged to a family, a tribe or a people, not to a territory. It was a basic tenet of Roman law.^[3]

An early form of partial jus soli dates from the Cleisthenes' reforms, and developed further in the Roman world where citizenship was extended to all free inhabitants of the Empire, especially with the Constitutio Antoniniana (Edict of Caracalla).^[3]

But it was much later, when the independence of the English colonies in America, and the French Revolution, laid the foundations for jus soli. With the social and economic development of the 19th and 20th centuries, and above all, the massive migrations to the Americas and Western Europe, that jus soli was established in a greater and greater number of countries.^[3]

The geographer Jared Diamond has calculated that if the application of jus soli since 1850 were abolished, 60% of Americans and 80% of Argentinians would lose their citizenship, and 25% of British and French.^[3]

[edit] Lex soli

Lex soli is a law used in practice to regulate who and under what circumstances an individual can assert the right of jus soli. Most states provide a specific lex soli, in application of the respective jus soli, and it is the most common means of acquiring nationality. A frequent exception to lex soli is imposed when a child was born to a parent in the diplomatic or consular service of another state, on a mission to the state in question.^[4]

[edit] Blurred lines between jus soli and jus sanguinis

There is a trend in some countries toward restricting lex soli by requiring that at least one of the child's parents be a national of the state in question at the child's birth, or a legal permanent resident of the territory of the state in question at the child's birth.^[5]

Jus soli around the world[link]

Jus soli is observed by a minority of the world's countries. Of advanced economies (as defined by the International Monetary Fund), Canada and the United States are the only countries that observe birthright citizenship.^[6][7][8][9] No European country grants unconditional birthright citizenship.^[10]

In an August 2010 report, the Center for Immigration Studies, through direct communication with foreign government officials and analysis of relevant foreign law including statutory and constitutional law, was able to confirm that 30 of the world's 194 countries grant automatic birthright citizenship (although they were not able to obtain definitive information from 19 countries).^[8]

Jus soli around the world

States that observe jus soli include:

•  Antigua and Barbuda^[9]
• Argentina^[9]
• Barbados^[9]
•  Belize^[9]
•  Bolivia^[9]
• Brazil^[9]
•  Cambodia^[9]
• Canada^[9][11]
•  Chile^[12] (children of transient foreigners or of foreign diplomats on assignment in Chile only upon request)
•  Colombia^[9]
•  Costa Rica^[9][13] (Children born to non-Costa Rican citizens obtain citizenship if registered as a Costa Rican by the will of either parent during minority or by his own will up to the age of twenty-five)
•  Dominica^[9]
•  Ecuador^[9]
•  El Salvador^[9]
•  Fiji^[14]
•  Grenada^[9]
•  Guatemala^[9]
•  Guyana^[9]
•  Honduras^[9]
•  Jamaica^[9]
•  Lesotho^[15]
•  Mexico^[9]
•  Nicaragua^[9]
•  Pakistan^[9][16]
•  Panama^[9]
• Paraguay^[9]
•  Peru^[9]
•  Saint Kitts and Nevis^[9]
•  Saint Lucia^[9]
•  Saint Vincent and the Grenadines^[9]
• Trinidad and Tobago^[9]
•  Tuvalu^[17]
• United States^[9]
•  Uruguay^[9]
•  Venezuela^[9]

Modification of jus soli[link]

In a number of countries, to discourage illegal immigration, automatic birthright citizenship has been repealed by imposing additional requirements (such as requiring that at least one of the parents be a legal permanent resident or that the parent has resided in the country for a specific period of time).^[8] As a result, the children of immigrants do not have automatic citizenship conferred upon their birth. Modification of jus soli has been criticized as contributing to economic inequality, the perpetuation of unfree labour from a helot underclass,^[5] and statelessness. Jus soli has been changed in the following countries:^[18]