Mai Kaneko-Iwase, Ph.D. (Law) D. Comparison of 142 Nationality Laws for the Age of a Foundling Below is a review of the age at which a child is found in the territory, as stipulated in the foundlingprovisions of at least 142 of the 193 UN member states.116 As laid out in Table 3 below, the survey found that, out of at least 142 states which have foundling provisions, the nationality laws of 15 states required that the child concerned was ‘born in the territory’ (rather than ‘found’ in the territory)117 and that at least 37 states required that the child concerned is a ‘newborn’ or a child ‘recently born’ or ‘born within six months’. Seven states use the word ‘infant’ (in English and Catalan)or ‘infante’ (in Spanish), which might mean young children, but remains unclear at the moment.118 Conversely, 10 states set specific age limits ranging from under three to under fifteen years. Most importantly, the foundling provisions of at least 26 states, or more than 18% of the 142 states surveyed, either explicitly included all minors or were understood to cover all minors, according to available legal interpretation (sources detailed in Table 4). Table 3: How Old Could a Foundling Be When Found?119 Note: Article or section numbers are within the relevant nationality legislation unless otherwise indicated (such as‘Constitution’). Please note that the expression ‘XX years and under’ includes the age indicated (used in this table),while ‘under XX years old’ does not. Percentages were calculated from the original counts using unrounded values. Category percentages are shown as whole numbers; therefore, their arithmetic sum may differ from the reported total. The total of 100% is based on the unrounded percentages. Maximum Age of a Foundling (1) ‘Birth’ in the territory required: Chad (art 11[2] and 12), DPRK (art 5[4]), Djibouti (art 6), Eritrea (art 2[3]), Haiti (art 4), Iran (art 976[3]), Japan (art 2[iii] (Note: Under Japanese Family Register Act art 57, in-country birth not required in practice. See n 122 of this paper), Lebanon (art 1), Libya (sec 3), Monaco(art 1[6]), Oman (Article 11[5]), Saint Lucia (sec 7[2][a]), San Marino (art 1[6]), Tajikistan (art 13[8]), Timor-Leste (sec 3.2[b] Constitution and sec 8[1][b] Law on Citizenship). # of states % 15 11% 116 Sec. 6.3, Kaneko-Iwase, Nationality of Foundlings (n 2) 236-245. 117 However, some states presume birth in the territory when children are found in the territory under some circumstances. This includes Article 2 (iii) of Nationality Act of Japan read together with Article 57 of the Family Register Act: An ‘abandoned child’ (kiji) who was ‘found’ in the territory of Japan is to be registered in a family register, by a written notification, and to acquire nationality pursuant to Article 2 (iii) of the Nationality Act. As such, the Japanese legislation in practice does not require a child to be ‘born in the territory’. 118 Costa Rica (art 13[4]), Honduras (art 23[4]), Nicaragua (art 16[4]), Paraguay (art 146 [4]) (‘infante’ in Spanish), South Sudan (sec 8[4]) and Fiji (sec 7) (‘infant’ in English) and Andorra (art 4; ‘infant’ in Catalan). There was no accessible and reliable information as to what ‘infant’ in the given legislation meant. In general terms however, the word ‘infant’ in English in a common usage means young children but also may mean a minor in legal terms. See IV. A and B. The term infante in Spanish (mainly in Latin America) may mean a person less than seven years of age but might also mean a smaller child or an older child depending on the context. See e.g. Real Academia Española, Diccionario de la Lengua Española (2001). 119 Note on translation and accessibility to the latest amendments: While the author directly referred to the latest accessible English, Spanish, French and Japanese versions/translations of domestic foundling provisions (and cross-checked their current validity with the latest original language versions on the relevant government/parliamentary webpages) by utilising the databases of the European University Institute i.e. globalcit.eu, complemented by UNHCR’s refworld.org and Citizenship Rights in Africa Initiative citizenshiprightsafrica.org, inaccuracies or missed nuances when it involves translation cannot be ruled out. Further, there is possibility that the versions consulted did not reflect the latest amendments to the relevant laws. Emphasis in italics is added by the author; translation of Spanish and French laws is by the author. 27 Robert Schuman Centre of Advanced Studies