Comparative Regional Report on Citizenship Law: Oceania Islands conferred citizenship on citizens of the former Trust Territory who had at least one parent with land rights in the Marshall Islands.53 Land rights are held under customary law or traditional practice, and pass in different ways along matrilineal and patrilineal lines. (iv) Citizenship upon application While all newly independent states conferred citizenship on defined classes automatically, citizenship by registration or application was used as a way of dealing with persons whose status might be unclear, or whose inclusion in the citizenry was controversial at the time of independence. Pre-independence constitutional negotiations between the Solomon Islands and Britain over the course of 1977 provide an example. 54 In this case, the issue of citizenship was particularly fraught. For their part, Solomon Islands leaders wanted to provide automatic citizenship only to Indigenous Solomon Islanders, defined as persons with two grandparents from Solomon Islands or neighbouring Melanesian islands. British officials, however, sought to apply the official policy, and held out for automatic citizenship for all British protected persons and citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies connected to Solomon Islands and their children. This would mean that the small groups of Polynesians (many of whom settled in Solomon Islands prior to European colonisation), and i-Kiribati, European and Chinese settlers would also receive automatic citizenship. The compromise eventually reached was to confer automatic citizenship on Indigenous peoples, and give non-Indigenous peoples the right to apply for citizenship after the date of independence.55 This was seen by British officials as “enabling the British principle of automaticity to be applied but by the Islanders and in their own ways”.56 Three other states provided for citizenship for defined groups by application or registration post-independence. The Constitution of Tuvalu 1978 provided for citizenship by registration for those groups who did not automatically become citizens upon independence.57 The Federated States of Micronesia extended citizenship by registration to citizens resident in other districts of the Trust Territory of the Pacific.58 The Constitution of Papua New Guinea provided that a person born outside of Papua New Guinea who had two grandparents born in Papua New Guinea could apply for citizenship within one year of independence.59 3.2.2 Naturalisation Naturalisation based on residence Naturalisation of a person after a certain period of residence (sometimes called ‘ordinary naturalisation’) is not easily obtained in Oceanic states. This is consistent with the emphasis in Oceania on ius sanguinis, or citizenship on the basis of descent, as post-colonial Oceanic states sought to build a nation first and foremost for their own Indigenous people. A related concern was that admitting new citizens might dilute the customary connections between land and communities, especially in states where land is held under customary law. 53 Constitution of the Marshall Islands 1979 Art XI, s 1(1). For an overview of these negotiations see McIntyre (n 42) 187–195. 55 Constitution of Solomon Islands 1978 s 20. 56 McIntyre (n 42) 194 citing British official correspondence. 57 Constitution of Tuvalu 1978 s 19; Citizenship Act c 24.05 (Tuvalu) s 5. 58 Constitution of the Federated States of Micronesia 1978 Art III, ss 1, 5. 59 Constitution of Papua New Guinea 1975 s 65(2). 54 RSCAS/GLOBALCIT-Comp 2020/1 - © 2020 Author 11