STATELESS PERSONS

Abstract

This chapter presents some details about the laws and other related aspects of stateless persons. Stateless persons are individuals not having a nationality under the law of any state. Statelessness is always attributable to municipal law and not to international law. International law generally accords States exclusive jurisdiction to legislate on nationality questions. Cases of individual statelessness may arise from a lack of coordination of national legislations with regard to basic principles governing acquisition and loss of nationality. The stateless person lacks all those rights that an individual possessing a nationality enjoys by virtue of that nationality. Because statelessness results from domestic law, the most direct way to reduce or eliminate it leads through the province of domestic nationality laws. In the absence of domestic and international measures to eliminate statelessness, the efforts to mitigate at least its consequences remain important.