2. West African nationality laws Both law and administrative practice are important for effective nationality administration, and both contribute to the problem of statelessness in West Africa. Even in those countries where the application of the law is weak, the law creates the framework within which practice operates, as well as shaping the limits for application of the rules by civil servants and broader popular understanding. If the law is deficient, an individual can buy a document here or there, but in the end will need proof according to the criteria set by the law; and the greater the degree of participation in the formal economy or in politics, and the more strictly enforced its terms are in practice, the more important the provisions of the law become. 2.1. The principles of nationality law Both the common law and the civil law models of nationality that came to be applied in Africa combine the two basic concepts known in Latin as jus soli (literally, law or right of the soil), whereby an individual obtains nationality because he or she was born in a particular country; and jus sanguinis (law or right of blood), where nationality is based on descent from parents who themselves are citizens. In general, a law based on jus sanguinis will tend to exclude from nationality residents of a country who are descended from individuals who have migrated from one place to another. An exclusive jus soli rule, on the other hand, would prevent individuals from claiming the nationality of their parents if they had moved away from their “historical” home, but is more inclusive of the actual residents of a particular territory. Many (but not all) African countries of civil law heritage have a system known as double jus soli, where a child born on the territory of one parent also born there automatically becomes a national at birth. All African nationality laws include a jus sanguinis element, providing for automatic nationality for the children of fathers who are nationals (and usually mothers also – see below, section 2.6.1); most also include a jus soli element, providing different degrees of access to nationality based on the circumstances of birth of the person or his or her parents in the territory. Among West African laws, the jus soli element is strongest, giving automatic rights to those born in the country, in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde and Guinea, as well as in Liberia (though on a racially discriminatory basis). Another distinction important in nationality law is that between nationality from birth (termed “nationality of origin” in the civil law countries) and nationality by acquisition. Nationality from birth/of origin may be based either on descent (jus sanguinis) or on birth in the country (jus soli), but implies that a child has a nationality from the moment of birth without having to undergo any further procedures to acquire it (in practice of course, there will be a need to complete some paperwork to obtain documentation of that nationality). Nationality by acquisition relates to those who have become citizens later in life, as a result of naturalisation based on long-term residence, or other less discretionary procedures (usually known as registration or option) based on marriage, adoption or other criteria.2 2 Note that the terminology is not consistent across legal systems. In countries using English as the official language, the law usually refers to citizenship “by birth” to mean “from birth”; but, confusingly, in some cases citizenship “by birth” is used to mean citizenship based on birth in the country (jus soli), based on the terminology used in Britain at the date of independence. Similarly, naturalisation is usually the term used (in English and in French and Portuguese) for acquisition of citizenship after long term residence; registration or option may be the term used for acquisition of citizenship based on marriage or other connection, under a 5