38.2 (7) TEMPROSA.DOCX38.2 (7) TEMPROSA.DOCX (DO NOT DELETE) 2020] STATELESSNESS AS RHETORIC 1/16/2021 12:59 PM 257 view, the phrase "operation of its law" was inserted into Article 1(1) of the 1954 Statelessness Convention to cover people who lost their nationality automatically through the application of law and people who lost their nationality through the application of a rule (e.g., an executive act). 97 Whether a person is stateless depends on a point of law, "an arguably unremarkable approach since nationality is itself a legal connection between a person and a [S]tate." 98 Under this first approach, statelessness is a question of law. Whether a State includes or excludes someone through the blackletter law is controlling. This mandates a strict, textual reading of the relevant laws. The IPU gives the impression that it endorses this view because Article 1(1) is a "strictly legal definition"99 binding on all States. To illustrate, if A's status is under determination, the determination officers of State Y would have to check the laws of all relevant States to know if A is not considered a national under the laws of those States. Relevant States are usually those States in which A has an important life connection (for example, birth and parentage, or where A lives or lived). Take for example that one such State is State X. If State X's law provides that all persons born in its territory are automatically citizens of State X, and A was born in the territory of State X, then A is not stateless because A is a citizen of X. The Second Approach The second approach, endorsed by UNHCR, is rooted in the renewed attention to statelessness. In 2010, UNHCR organized an expert meeting in Prato, Italy on the concept of statelessness. 100 The meeting's summary conclusions stressed the importance of interpreting the definition in line with the 1954 Statelessness Convention's object and purpose. 101 At the meeting, scholars' views were taken into account on how the definition should be interpreted. 102 UNHCR's position was that a more holistic interpretation is best, paying due regard to the ordinary meaning of the term "statelessness," but at the same time, examining the elements of the definition. 103 97. 98. 99. Id. VAN WAAS, supra note 51, at 20. INTER-PARLIAMENTARY UNION, NATIONALITY AND STATELESSNESS: A HANDBOOK FOR PARLIAMENTARIANS 10 (2005). 100. See UNHCR, Expert Meeting, The Concept of Stateless Persons under International Law: Summary Conclusions, (May 27–28, 2010), http://www.unhcr.org/4cb2fe326.pdf (last visited Apr. 15, 2019) [hereinafter "UNHCR, Expert Meeting"]. 101. Id. at 2. 102. Id. 103. Id.