Forthcoming in the Max Planck Yearbook of United Nations Law (27) choose between either the nationality of the predecessor state and the successor state, or between the nationalities of two or more successor states. As the commentary to Art. 11 clarifies, the term ‘option’ also covers the procedures for voluntarily acquiring a nationality by declaration, as well as renouncing a nationality acquired ex lege. Renunciation, however, will not be effective if the individual is rendered stateless – again, even if they so wish. Ultimately, the implementation of the right of option, or the exercise of the right to acquire or retain a nationality, cannot be subject to discriminatory grounds, nor arbitrarily denied. The articles also incorporate additional guarantees for individuals affected by state succession, including the protection of family unity, the right of children to acquire the nationality of the state where they were born, and the right of non-nationals habitually residing in the successor state to retain that status. Though the Commission wished to see the articles on nationality adopted as a declaration,88 therefore diverging from its previous codification projects on state succession, states could not reach an agreement on their final form. The UNGA eventually decided to simply take note of the articles and annex them to a resolution 89 – a practice that would later become frequent. The consideration of the adoption of a legal instrument on the nationality of individuals in relation to state succession would be later discontinued by the UNGA in 2011. Notwithstanding the apparent failure to adopt a formal, legal document on the issue, the work of the ILC still provides valuable guidance to states in an area where the law is extremely complex and uncertain. Some of the Commission’s conclusions and approaches were, for UN ILC, ‘Report of the Commission to the General Assembly on the Work of Its Fifty-First Session’ in Yearbook of the International Law Commission 1999, vol. II (Part Two) UN Doc. A/CN.4/SER.A/1999/Add.1, at 16. 89 UNGA Res. 55/153, ‘Nationality of Natural Persons in Relation to the Succession of States’ (30 January 2001). 88 23 Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4816199