Diritto Pubblico Comparato ed Europeo

Sommario

1. Premessa: le preoccupazioni dell’Economist. – 2. La cittadinanza tradizionale tra vecchie convenzioni e regole scritte: statualità e citizenship ... – 3. (segue): ... ed evoluzioni della allegiance. – 4. Le pressioni dell’immigrazione: un secolo di avvicendamenti legislativi. – 5. La regolazione giuridica della cittadinanza. – 6. Gli sviluppi del dopo-11 settembre: prime impressioni sul Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002.

AbstractHow far is the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002, passed in Westminster following the events of 11th September connected to traditional British legislation on citizenship and immigration and how far is the status of aliens within the United Kingdom actually affected by the latest policy-making in the implementation of immigration control? The close relationship between the British nationality issue (incorporated in the British Nationality Act 1981) and the immigration question (mainly ruled by the Immigration Act 1971, amended in 1999) are focused on important historical developments such as the establishment of civil society, the settling of the Empire, the establishment of the Commonwealth, the decolonisation crisis, the European Union partnership and the regrettable hindrance of international terrorism. The development of the common law safeguards and of the traditional idea of a British citizenship based on the subject's allegiance to the Crown focused the law-maker’s attention on the legal identity of the British subject rather than on the very status of the alien whether he be of a friendly or an enemy country. Is the recent anti-terrorism legislation in turn an “alien” feature of the concept of British nationality? And, if we look at the British democracy, is the 2002 Act a measure of self-defence or an accident due to overreaction?