ChaChapter 1: Nationality and Statelessness requisite state when it interprets and applies this law.9 Moreover, in identifying whether a person or group is stateless it is not relevant how the person came to be without a nationality or whether the person could (re)acquire the nationality of a state in future, it only matters whether the person has a nationality or not at the present moment.10 Finally, it should be pointed out that in much of the available literature on statelessness, people who fall within the definition of a stateless person as set out under international law have frequently been described as being de jure stateless. A distinct concept, “de facto statelessness”, has emerged as a label for a wide variety of situations in which a person does hold a nationality but this is, in some way, ineffective. There is, however, no agreement as to the scope of this latter concept, nor is there an international legal framework for addressing cases of de facto statelessness. As such, it remains a contested notion. This report deals exclusively with statelessness as defined under international law and as set out above. Having dealt with the definition of the two concepts which are central to this research project, namely 9 - UNHCR, Handbook on Protection of Stateless Persons, 2014 at page 12. 10 - Ibid, at page 20. On the other hand, the availability, for example, of a procedure by which a person can easily (re)acquire nationality may have an impact on the extent to which such a person is owed protection on the ground of his or her statelessness by a third state. 17