THE BRITISH NATIONALITY ACT 1981

1. THE BRITISH NATIONALITY ACT 1981 • Act of Parliament concerning British nationality • The basis of British nationality law since 1 January 1983

2. THE BRITISH NATIONALITY ACT 1981: HISTORY • mid-1970s: the British Government dicedes to update the British Nationality Act 1948 • 1977: a Green Paper was produced to reform the nationality code • 1980: a White Paper was produced containing the government’s specific plans for change • 1981: the new British Nationality Act received Royal Assent • 1 January 1983: the British Nationality Act 1981 came into force

3. ACT’S PURPOSES Reclassification of CUKC Modification of Jus soli Other changes

4. ACT’S PURPOSES: RECLASSIFICATION • Three categories of Citizeship of United Kingdom and Colonies (CUKC): • British citizenship • British Dependent Territories citizenship (BDTC) • British Overseas citizenship

5. ACT’S PURPOSES: RECLASSIFICATION • 1962: with the Commonwealth Immigrants Act not all CUKCs had the Right of Abode in the UK: • the Act wanted to restore the link between citizenship and right of abode • it guranteed British citizenship would carry a right of abode in the UK • the other categories of British nationality would not hold such status

6. ACT’S PURPOSES: RECLASSIFICATION After 1977’s Green Paper all three categories of British Nationality (British citizenship, BDTC, British Overseas citizens) got the Right of Adobe in the United Knigdom

7. ACT’S PURPOSES: JUS SOLI • The Act modified Jus soli’s application in British Nationality: • it is necessary for at least one parent of a UK-born child to be a British citizen or a permanent resident of the United Kingdom • the most of children born in the UK still acquire British citizenship at birth

8. ACT’S PURPOSES: OTHER CHANGES • Mothers were allowed to pass British citizenship to their children • Rght of Abode could no longer be acquired by non-British citizens • Commonwealth and Irish citizens had to apply for naturalisation to acquire British citizenship • Women married to British men could no longer acquire British citizenship purely by marriage • British Crown Colonies were renamed British Dependent Territories

9. THE SUPREME COURT ACT 1981 • Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom • it defines the structure of the Supreme Court of England and Wales and includes: • it’s being amended by the Constitutional Reform Act 2005 which established a new Supreme Court of the UK and changed the title into the Senior Courts Act 1981 • the Court of Appeal • the High Court of Justice • the Crown Court

10. THE REPRESENTATION OF PEOPLE ACT • The Representation of the Act 1983 changed the British electoral process in the following ways : • amended the 1969 Representation of the People Act • stated that a convicted person cannot vote at any parliamentary or local election whilst in prison • laid down the appeals process in local elections