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10Assoc. Prof. Dr. Elena Vaitiekiene
Law Faculty Department of Constitutional Law Mykolas Romeris University (Vilnius, Republic of Lithuania)
CONSTITUTIONAL GROUNDS OF REGULATION OF CITIZENSHIP IN THE REPUBLIC OF LITHUANIA
The legal status of an individual in the State depends on the group of individuals she/he belongs to: citizens of the State, citizens of foreign State, stateless persons, persons having double nationality, refugees, compulsory resettled persons or other. The legal status of each group is specified by international and national legal acts.
Most of the rights belong to citizens of the State. Only citizens exercise all the rights and liberties established in the state by Constitution and other Laws. According to the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania only citizens have the right to participate in the governance of the State directly or through democratically elected representatives; the right to propose a Constitutional amendment; the right to elect and be elected to Parliament (Seimas); the right to elect and be elected the President of the Republic; the right to be judges; the right to enter on equal terms in the State service; the right to request announcement of a Referendum; the right of legislative initiative; the right to freely join political parties [1]. The Constitution and other legal acts provide other rights and liberties belonging only to the citizens of the Republic. Otherwise, only the citizens have certain constitutional duties: the duty of the defence of the State of Lithuania against the foreign armed attack; the duty to perform military or alternative national defence service.
In accordance with the international law, a person who has multiple (double) nationality is treated by each state as holding its citizenship only. That means such a person has all the rights and duties provided under the constitutional law of the each state which citizenship he holds. Collisions (when a double-national person has the same duties to several states, e.g. the duty to perform military service, the duty to pay taxes, etc.) are to be solved in a diplomatic way. The legislation on citizenship in most countries is based on the principle of single nationality having in mind that status of double-national person causes additional problems to the state as well as to the person himself. Some states establish
restrictions on the political rights of double-nationals, e.g. according to the paragraph 1 of Article 56 of the Constitution only a citizen of the Republic of Lithuania who is not bound by an oath or pledge to a foreign state have the right be elected to the Seimas.
Differences of the legal status among citizens depend on the way of acquiring the citizenship. Often the legislator makes distinction between the two definitions: inherent (innate or congenital) citizenship (citizens by origin) and acquired citizenship (naturalized persons and those who acquired citizenship exercising the right of option), e.g. according to the Constitution (paragraph 1 of Article 78) only a Lithuanian citizen by origin may be elected to be the President of the Republic. Usually citizens by origin cannot be expelled from the state; they cannot be deprived of citizenship, while as it regards naturalized persons such actions may be applied, e.g. according to the nationality laws the act on the granting of citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania may be declared invalid only as it regards the persons who acquired Lithuanian citizenship by the way of naturalization or by exercising the right of option.
Usually citizenship is defined as a certain subordination of the individual to the state, as a constant legal or political-legal link between the individual and the State. The national legal acts of most countries do not provide the definition of citizenship. The term of citizenship was defined for the first time by the International Court of Justice in the case of Not-tebohm (Liechtenchte in v. Guatemala, 1955): citizenship is a legal link based on mutual legal rights and duties [13]. According to the article 2 of the European Convention on Nationality (1997) citizenship is a legal bond between a person and the state and does not indicate the person's ethnic origin [12]. It should be mentioned that this Convention is still not ratified by Lithuania. The reason might be that its nationality laws give a priority to the ethnic principle (e.g. the provisions emphasizing Lithuanian descent in acquiring or retaining citizenship).
The Constitutional Court of the Republic of Lith-
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uania in the ruling of 13 April, 1994 had considered that citizenship is a person's permanent political legal relation to a certain state grounded on mutual rights and obligations as well as mutual trust, loyalty and protection there from [2].
In order to define the term of citizenship it is important to have in mind that a person acquiring citizenship implements one of the fundamental human rights - the right to citizenship. Everyone has the right to a nationality. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality. It is declared in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) [14]. In this aspect citizenship may be analysed as one of the human rights. It is one of the main human rights which give a possibility for implementation of other human rights and liberties.
The principles of citizenship are contained in a number of international treaties and documents: the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), the Geneva Convention on the Status of Refugees (1951), the European Convention on the Status of Stateless Persons (1954), the European Convention on the Citizenship of Married Women (1957), the European Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness (1961), the International Pact on Civil and Political Rights (1966), the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), the European Convention on Citizenship (1997), etc.
The fundamental principle of international law is that the legal regulation of citizenship is in the competence of the State. This provision for the first time was specified in the Hague Convention on certain questions relating to the conflicts of nationality laws ( April 12, 1930) [10]. The Convention declared: it is for each State to determine under its own law who are its nationals. This law shall be recognised by other States in so far as it is consistent with international conventions, international custom, and the principles of law generally recognised with regard to nationality. Almost the same definition was provided in Article 3 of the European Convention on nationality (1997). Nevertheless national legislation has to correspond to the universal principles of citizenship. These are as follows:
Everyone has the right to nationality (citizenship). The right to nationality is inviolable and inherent. This provision is established in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), the Declaration on the Rights of the Child (1989), etc.
Everyone is free in self-determination. A person has the right to self-determinate citizenship; the right to change or refuse citizenship. This principle is closely connected with other fundamental requirement: neither marriage nor divorce nor the change of citizenship by one of the spouses, shall deprive
citizenship of the other spouse. This principle was defined by international law as one of the means to ensure sex equality. Until the middle of 20th century it was almost generally recognized and specified by national laws that married woman automatically acquires citizenship of her husband without her consent. However, such provision was in the contrary with the principle of self-determination. Therefore, the UN General Assembly adopted the Convention on the nationality of married women (1957), which provided that in the case of marriage with a foreigner woman does not automatically acquire husband's citizenship; also that granting of citizenship of other spouse shall not deprive her own citizenship [11]. The mentioned Convention as well as the European Convention on Citizenship obliges the States to facilitate conditions of acquiring citizenship of a spouse. The acting Law on Citizenship of 2 December 2010 provides facilitated way of obtaining nationality of a spouse regardless of a gender, however it concerns only a period of residence in Lithuania
[5].
While recognizing individual as a stateless person his inherent right to citizenship is violated. In accordance with the international law, States are bounded to provide for the legal means for reducing a number of stateless persons. A person could find himself in such a status when he looses citizenship in different ways, including withdrawal of it; also in the cases of territorial changes of the state.
No one may be deprived of his nationality (ex lege or at the initiative of the state). This principle was provided for the first time in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948). However, this provision is not absolute: it is not prohibited to determine legal grounds of loosing citizenship by the national law.
Everyone is equal under the law. The national legislation on citizenship issues has to be in compliance with the principle of equality. It does mean that discrimination of the human being on the basis of gender, race, nationality, language, origin, social status, convictions as well as on the grounds of acquiring citizenship is prohibited.
Citizenship is acquired, retained and lost in accordance with the provisions of the law. Usually Constitution contains only general provisions related with citizenship. There are three basic provisions laid down in the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania. According to the Article 12 of the Constitution: 1) citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania shall be acquired by birth and other grounds established by law; 2) with the exception of individual cases provided for by law, no one may be citizen of both the Republic of Lithuania and another state at the same time; 3) the procedure for the acquisition
and loss of citizenship shall be established by law. These constitutional provisions may be altered only by referendum.
The Law on Citizenship passed on 2 December 2010 is in force. It was preceded by several nationality laws (Law passed on 19 September 2002 excluding those provisions which Constitutional Court considered to be contrary to the Constitution; Law of 5 December 1991; and Law of 3 November 1989) [6, 7, 8]. The acting Law on Citizenship determines the persons that are considered to be citizens of the Republic of Lithuania, specifies the grounds of the acquisition, loss of citizenship and other issues. The requirements to aliens for permanent and temporary residence in Lithuania which have to be observed in acquiring citizenship are laid down in the Law on the Legal Status of Aliens [9]. It should be noted that in order to understand, interpret or apply the provisions of the Law on Citizenship the non acting legislation doesn't loose its importance as the current law is quite complicated and controversial.
The international treaties of the Republic of Lithuania have the force of law as well. The application of international treaties is outlined in the Article 4 of the Law on Citizenship. As it recognized in this article, where an effective international treaty ratified by the Republic of Lithuania establishes provisions other than those provided for in this Law, the provisions of the international treaty to which the Republic of Lithuania is a party shall apply.
Among the main sources of the constitutional law in Lithuania are the rulings of the Constitutional Court of the Republic. It is recognized by the Court that he is the only one institution which has the right to interpret Constitution officially, interpretations of the principles and norms of the Constitution declared in the decisions of the Court shall be final and not subject to appeal.
As mentioned above, on 13 April 1994 the Constitutional Court made his first ruling concerning the issues of citizenship. Constitutional Court stated inter alia that neither occupation army (along with soldiers) nor repressive structures (along with officers) of foreign state, which resided in Lithuania without free-will consent of Lithuania's authorities, could be interpreted (considered) as lawfully residing; service in occupation army or repressive structures of foreign state could not be considered as legal permanent employment on the territory of Lithuania; unlawful, i.e. without free-will consent of official authorities of the Republic of Lithuania, residing on the territory of Lithuania irrespective of its duration, could not be considered as lawful permanent residence on the territory of Lithuania. Therefore Constitutional Court recognized that the decisions of the Parliament allowing persons who
have served in the armed forces of the Soviet Union automatically acquire citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania according to its contents contradicts the nationality laws of the Republic as well as the Constitution.
On 30 December, 2003 the Constitutional Court passed a ruling „On the Compliance of the President of the Republic of Lithuania Decree No. 40 „On Granting Citizenship of the Republic Lithuania by Way of Exception" of 11 April, 2003 to the extent providing that citizenship of the Republic Lithuania is granted to Jurij Borisov by way of exception according to the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania and Paragraph 1 of Article 12 of the Republic of Lithuania Law on Citizenship" [3].
Constitutional Court had stated that when granting citizenship by the way of exception the provisions of the Law on Citizenship were often interpreted and implemented with legal fault, ignoring the essence and nature of citizenship provided under the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania.
According to this ruling citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania may (might) be granted only to a citizen of a foreign state or stateless person who was with merits not to any subject, but to the State of Lithuania itself, i.e. the state community-the civil Nation, that only the activity of the person is to be considered merits to the Republic of Lithuania, when the person very significantly contributes to strengthening of Lithuanian statehood, to the increase of power of Lithuania and its authority in the international community. Merits of a citizen of a foreign state or a stateless person to the State of Lithuania cannot be evaluated on the mere amount of sum of money or the amount of material and other support rendered by the citizen of a foreign state or stateless person to a certain citizen or a group of citizens of the Republic of Lithuania, a state official, a certain enterprise, establishment or organisation or even to the State of Lithuania itself. Citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania cannot be acquired for financial, material or any other support, i.e. bought. In case a citizen of a foreign state or stateless person is with merits to the Republic of Lithuania, it is permitted to consider and decide whether to grant citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania to such a person by way of exception only when this person has already been integrated into the Lithuanian society.
It should be noted that since the above discussed ruling was passed there were only few foreign state persons granted the citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania by the way of exception. Therefore on 14 January, 2013 the President of the Republic made an appeal to the Constitutional Court for more detail interpretation of Court's decisions concerning the requirements of acquiring citizenship by the way of
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exception as well as the issues of legal regulation of double citizenship.
Double (multiple) nationality is the main problem of legal regulation in Lithuania since its independence was declared. The European Convention on Nationality determines the term of multiple nationality as simultaneous possession of two or more nationalities by the same person.
There are some ways of acquiring double nationality. Double nationality may be if the laws of both states do not prohibit it. It may be also in the cases when double nationality is prohibited only by one side (state) while the other recognizes the principle of single nationality. Usually, a person becomes double national in the cases of different legal regulation of the grounds of acquiring citizenship, due to a collision of the laws of states, e.g. in some states it is provided by the law that in the case of marriage with a foreigner woman acquires citizenship of her husband; some states recognize national principle of acquiring citizenship by birth, while the others - territorial principle, etc.
Usually, the ascertainment of the facts of double nationality is accidental because of a lack of coordination between competent institutions of the states. While it should be find out, a double national person shall have all the rights and liberties provided under the constitutional law of the each state which citizenship he/she holds. As it was mentioned above, in accordance with international law, a person who has double nationality is treated by each state as holding its citizenship only.
The legislation on citizenship of Lithuania is based on the principle of single nationality. In accordance with the Constitution (paragraph 2 Article 12) no one may be citizen of both the Republic of Lithuania and another State at the same time except of individual cases provided for by law. It is the basic principle of legal regulation on issues of citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania. However, this principle is not absolute. The cases of acquiring citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania without renunciation of citizenship of other state may be defined by law. E.g. the Law on Citizenship of 19 September, 2002 permitted double nationality to:1) persons who acquire citizenship by the way of exception; 2) persons who held citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania prior to 15 June 1940, their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren (in case that such persons, their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren did not repatriate). These persons had the right to acquire citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania without renunciation of the citizenship of another state by way of restoration (paragraph 2 Article 20) or, if the said persons were residing in other states, by way of exercising the right of retention of the right
to citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania (paragraph 1 Article 17). It should be noted that the provision of paragraph 2 and 4 Article 18 provided that the mentioned persons do not lose citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania if they acquired citizenship of another state after 1 January 2003;
3) persons of Lithuanian descent: a) persons residing in other states who have the right to retain the right to citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania (according to Article 17); b) persons who do not lose the citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania upon acquisition of the citizenship of another state, if they acquired citizenship of another state after 1 January 2003 (according to paragraph 2 and 4 Article 18);
4) persons having refugee status in the Republic of Lithuania.
Granting the right to the citizens, enumerated in the paragraph 2 Article 18 of the Law on Citizenship, not to loose the citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania upon acquisition of the citizenship of another State had caused dissatisfaction of the ethnic minorities in Lithuania. On 17 November 2003 a group of members of Seimas submitted petition to the Constitutional Court with the request to investigate if the provisions of the Law on Citizenship providing the right to the citizens of Lithuanian descent to retain (not to loose) the citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania upon acquisition of the citizenship of another state are not contrary to the constitutional principle of equality (established in Article 29) and the principle of single nationality (provided by paragraph 2 Article 12).
It should be noted that Lithuanian legislation on citizenship is based on the continuity of the citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania. However, this principle provided by the laws on citizenship of 1991 and 2002 was not absolute. Determining what persons are citizens of the Republic of Lithuania the law established that not all persons, who had Lithuanian citizenship till 15 June 1940, are considered citizens of the restored Republic of Lithuania. Those persons who repatriated from Lithuania, their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren were not considered as having Lithuanian citizenship till 15 June 1940. According to the law repatriation from Lithuania was defined as the departure to the ethnic motherland or settling in the ethnic motherland (it should be mentioned that in international law, the notion "repatriation" is usually used only in the context of protection of victims of war and their return to the homeland). Such concept of the notion "repatriation" was under discussion for a long time. On 6 September 2004 the Vilnius County Court lodged an appeal to the Constitutional Court requesting to investigate the constitutionality of the provisions regarded with the status of repatriated persons.
In the end of 2006 Constitutional Court conducted the investigation of the case subsequent to the petition submitted to the Court by a group of members of the Seimas and Vilnius County Court requesting to investigate if the provisions of the legal acts on citizenship concerning such issues as Lithuanian descent, repatriation and the grounds of acquiring double nationality are in compliance with the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania. On 13 November 2006 Constitutional Court passed a ruling "On the Compliance of the Provisions of the Legal Acts on Citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania", which changed the conception of legal regulation of matters of citizenship substantially [4].
Constitutional Court had considered that the provisions of the Law on citizenship, which extended the grounds of acquiring of double nationality (Article 17, paragraph 2 Article 18 and some others) are not compliant with the constitutional principle of single nationality established in the paragraph 2 Article 12 of Constitution.
Constitution contains the principle of single nationality (paragraph 2 of Article 12). No one may be citizen of the Republic of Lithuania and another State at the same time except of individual cases provided for by law. It is the basic principle of legal regulation of issues of citizenship. However, since 1991 legal grounds of acquiring double nationality were permanently extended. In the above mentioned ruling Constitutional Court had emphasised that finally it was established such legal regulation that number of individuals, who might be citizens of the Republic of Lithuania and another State at the same time, was so extended, that dual nationality has become not individual case, but wide spread phenomenon. Constitutional Court had suspended this process and stated that those articles which contain such provisions are contrary to the Constitution (paragraph 2 of Article 12).
According to the Constitutional Court it should be underlined that the provision of Article 12 of the Constitution that a person may be a citizen of the Republic of Lithuania and, at the same time, a citizen of another State only in individual cases established by law, means that such cases established by law can be very rare (individual), that cases of double citizenship must be extraordinarily rare, exceptional, that under the Constitution it is not permitted to establish any such legal regulation under which cases of double citizenship would be not extraordinarily rare exceptions, but a widespread phenomenon.
Constitutional Court also declared the unconsti-tutionality of the above mentioned provisions concerning repatriated persons as being contradictory to the principle of equality (Article 29 of the Constitution) and the principle of the State under the rule of
law. Legal regulation of citizenship must follow the principle of equal rights of persons. As the Constitutional Court has held in its acts more than once, this constitutional principle means the innate human right to be treated equally with others and it consolidates formal equality of all persons, obliges to legally assess the same facts in the same manner and prohibits from arbitrary assessment of the facts that are essentially the same in a varied manner, it does not allow to discriminate persons, nor grant them any privileges.
Constitutional Court interpreted also that such concept of "repatriation" as determined by law is legally ungrounded, discriminating persons on the ground of ethnic (national) descent. Relating repatriation with the individual's returning only to the ethnic motherland, it is ascertained that the main and the only feature deciding what state is considered to be the individual's ethnic motherland is the individual's nationality. According to the Constitution the individual has the right not to point out his/her nationality. Citizenship is a legal link between the individual and the state, which is constant in space and time. The reservation of this link should not depend upon what is individual's nationality as well as what state he/she left for to live.
The rulings of Constitutional Court have validity of res judicata from the day of their official publication. No appeal may be brought against them. Those which declare the unconstitutionality of a law or other legal acts shall be fully binding on all persons. It is important to have in mind that the judgments of the Constitutional Court have no retrospective legal force (they are not valid ex post facto).
Thus, the legal force of the judgment of Constitutional Court by which the above mentioned provisions regarded with double nationality and repatriated persons were considered to be unconstitutional shall not concern those citizens who obtained Lithuanian citizenship without renunciation of the citizenship of another state in the manner established in the laws which were in force since 1991 till 16 November 2006 (the date of official publication of the ruling of Constitutional Court). They shall retain double nationality.
Constitutional Court had stated that declaration of unconstitutionality of the provisions concerning repatriated persons does not mean that these persons, in spite of that the principle of equality was violated by the legal acts on citizenship (they had no right of retention of the right to citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania; could not exercise the right to citizenship on the same terms as other persons who held citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania prior to 15 June 1940) shall not have the right to obtain Lithuanian citizenship without renunciation
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of the citizenship of another state.
It should be noted that the Law on Citizenship of 2002 was not revised until the end of 2010. The legislation process was long-drawn and tempestuous as the legislators couldn't come to an agreement on determination of the individual cases of double citizenship. Currently the cases when a citizen of the Republic of Lithuania may be a citizen of another state at the same time are laid down in the Article 7 of the Law on Citizenship. According to this article a citizen of the Republic of Lithuania may be a citizen of another state at the same time, provided he meets at least one of the following conditions: 1) he has acquired citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania and citizenship of another state at birth and he has not reached 21 years of age; 2) he is a person who was exiled from the occupied Republic of Lithuania before 11 March 1990 and acquired citizenship of another state; 3) he is a person who fled the Republic of Lithuania before 11 March 1990 and acquired citizenship of another state; 4) he is a descendant of a person referred to in subparagraph 2 or 3 of this Article; 5) by virtue of marriage to a citizen of another state he has ipso facto acquired citizenship of
that state; 6) he is a person under 21 years of age, provided he was adopted by citizens (citizen) of the Republic of Lithuania before reaching 18 years of age and, as a result of the adoption, acquired citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania pursuant to paragraph 1 of Article 17 of this Law; 7) he is a person under 21 years of age, provided he, being a citizen of the Republic of Lithuania, was adopted by citizens (citizen) of another state before reaching 18 years of age and, as a result of the adoption, acquired citizenship of that state; 8) he has acquired citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania by way of exception while being a citizen of another state; 9) he has acquired citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania while having refugee status in the Republic.
However, the existing legal regulation of the double citizenship is not acceptable for some social groups, first for all emigrants who try to eliminate the constitutional principle of single nationality. Therefore on 14 January, 2013 the President of the Republic made an appeal to the Constitutional Court for additional interpretation of its decisions concerning the issues of legal regulation of double citizenship.
REFERENCES
1. Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania. - Vilnius: TIC, 2005. - 212 c.
2. Ruling of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Lithuania "On the compliance of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania resolution "On Amending Item 5 of the Resolution of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Lithuania "On the Procedure for Implementing the Law on Citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania " adopted 22 December 1993 with the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania" // Valstybés zinios. - 1994. - Nr. 29-524.
3. Ruling of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Lithuania „On the Compliance of the President of the Republic of Lithuania Decree No. 40 „On Granting Citizenship of the Republic Lithuania by Way of Exception" of 11 April, 2003 to the extent providing that citizenship of the Republic Lithuania is granted to Jurij Borisov by way of exception according to the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania and Paragraph 1 of Article 12 of the Republic of Lithuania Law on Citizenship" //Valstybés zinios. - 2003. - Nr. 124-5643.
4. Ruling of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Lithuania "On the Compliance of the Provisions of the Legal Acts on Citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania" // Valstybés zinios. - 2006. - Nr. 123-4650.
5. Law on Citizenship // Valstybés zinios. - 2010. - Nr. 144-7361.
6. Law on Citizenship // Valstybés zinios. - 2002. - Nr. 95-4087.
7. Law on Citizenship // Valstybés zinios. - 1991. - Nr. 36-977.
8. Law on Citizenship [Электронный ресурс]. - Режим доступа: http://www3.lrs.lt/pls/inter3/dok-paieska.showdoc_l?p_id=18854&p_query=&p_tr2=2 (дата обращения 13.02.2013).
9. Law on the Legal Status of Aliens // Valstybés zinios. - 2004. - Nr. 73-2539.
10. Convention on certain questions relating to the conflicts of nationality laws [Электронный ресурс].-Режим доступа: http://www.paclii.org/pits/en/treaty_database/1930/2.html (дата обращения 15.02.2013).
11. Convention on the Nationality of Married Women [Электронный ресурс].- Режим доступа: http:// www.unhcr.org/refworld/topic,459d17822,459d17a32,3ae6b3708,0.html. (дата обращения 15.02.2013).
12. European Convention on Nationality[Электронный ресурс].- Режим доступа: http://www.con-ventions.coe.int/Treaty/en/Treaties/Html/166.htm (дата обращения 16.02.2013).
13. Nottebohm[Электронный ресурс].- Режим доступа: http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/index.php?p1= 3&p2=3&code=lg&case=18&k=26 (дата обращения 16.02.2013).
14. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights[Электронный ресурс].- Режим доступа: http://www. un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml (дата обращения 16.02.2013).
Мацалада Литва Республикасындагы азаматтъщ цатынастарды цуцыцтыц реттеудщ мэселелер1 царастырылады. 1шк зацнаманыц Конституцияныц, конституциялыц доктринаныц нормаларына жэне азаматтыц саладагы жалпы цабылданган стандарттарга сэйкес келу проблемасына назар аударылган.
ТYйiн свздер: азаматтыц, улт, цос азаматтыц, азаматтыц алу, азамат, конституция, конституциялыц сот.
В статье рассматриваются вопросы правового регулирования отношений гражданства в Литовской Республике. Основное внимание уделяется проблеме соответствия внутреннего законодательства нормам Конституции, конституционной доктрины и общепринятым стандартам в сфере гражданства.
Ключевые слова: гражданство, национальность, двойное гражданство, приобретение гражданства, гражданин, конституция, конституционный суд.
The article deals with the problem of legal regulation of citizenship (nationality) of the Republic of Lithuania. The main attention is given to the compliance of the provisions laid down in ordinary law with national constitution, constitutional doctrine and universal standards of legal regulation of issues of citizenship.
Keywords: citizenship, nationality, multiple (double) citizenship, acquiring of citizenship, citizen, constitution, constitutional court.
Елена Броневна вайтекене,
Миколас Рёмерис атындагы университет зац факультетшщ конституциялыщ кафедрасыньщ
доцент (Вильнюс rç.), гылымдар докторы
Литва Республикасында азаматтыцты к^кыктык; реттеудщ конституциялыц негiздерi
вайтекене Елена Броневна,
доцент кафедры конституционного права юридического факультета Университета им. Миколаса Рёмериса (г. Вильнюс), доктор наук
Конституционные основы правового регулирования гражданства в Литовской Республике
Vaitiekiene Elena Bronevna,
Docent Department of Constitutional Law, Faculty of Law, Mykolas Romeris University (Vilnius), doctor of sciences
Constitutional grounds of legal regulation of citizenship in the Republic of Lithuania
