Nationality

Nationality is, in English usage, the legal relationship between a person and a country. Where the country only has one legal system, this represents the common perception, but where the country is divided into separate states, different rules apply. Upon birth, every person acquires a domicile. This is the relationship between a person and a specific legal system. Hence, one might have an Australian nationality and a domicile in New South Wales, or an American nationality and a domicile in Arizona. The person remains subject to the state's jurisdiction for the purposes of defining status and capacity, even while not on the state's territory; in exchange, the individual is entitled to the state's protection, and to other rights as well. This is an aspect of the public policy of parens patriae and the concepts of the social contract. In the civil law systems of continental Europe, the law of nationality is preferred to domicile as the test of a person's status and capacity.

Alternative usage

In Central and Eastern Europe, as well as some other areas of the world, the cognate word for nationality is understood as a synonym of ethnicity, since nation is defined in these areas as a grouping based on cultural self-determination rather then on relations with a state. For example many people would say they are Kurds, i.e., of Kurdish nationality, even though Kurdistan is not a state. In the context of the Soviet Union and of former Yugoslavia, nationality is used as translation of the Russian and Serbian terms used for ethnic groups within a country. Similarly, the nationalities of China are ethnic groups.

Related Topics:
Central - Eastern Europe - Cognate - Ethnicity - Nation - Kurds - Kurdistan - State - Soviet Union - Yugoslavia - Ethnic group - Nationalities of China

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