BOOK REVIEW NATIONALITY OF FOUNDLINGS: AVOIDING STATELESSNESS AMONG CHILDREN OF UNKNOWN PARENTS UNDER INTERNATIONAL NATIONALITY LAW BY MAI KANEKO-IWASE (SPRINGER 2021) 443 PAGES. PRICE $149.99. ISBN 9789811630040 BETSY L FISHER* Most states have some mechanism to convey nationality to at least some children found in their territory who are of unknown parentage. Broad foundling provisions are vital to ensure that children receive nationality and can access basic rights — but there has been little scholarship on foundling legislation. It has primarily been addressed in brief as part of broader legal surveys,1 in studies of specific states’ nationality schemes or stateless populations2 or in comparative regional studies.3 This left a gap in global comparative studies and in scholarship identifying best practices in granting nationality to children of unknown parentage. The definition of a foundling and consideration of how states ought to extend nationality to them has not been the focus of extensive scholarship or interpretation prior to this volume. Mai Kaneko-Iwase, a scholar and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (‘UNHCR’) legal expert on statelessness, fills this gap in her 2021 publication Nationality of Foundlings: Avoiding Statelessness among Children of Unknown Parents under International Nationality Law (‘Nationality of Foundlings’).4 The book compiles and analyses international law and state practice through meticulous research, the review of the nationality legislation of all 193 UN member states and a deeper review of case law from Japan, Italy, Spain and other states. She then proposes policy solutions to minimise statelessness and maximise child protection. Most states’ nationality laws (139 out of 193 UN member states) have some provision addressing the nationality of children of unknown parentage.5 Leading international and regional instruments — most notably the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness (‘1961 Convention’) and the European Convention * 1 2 3 4 5 Betsy L Fisher is a lawyer, a lecturer at the University of Michigan Law School and an advocate with United Statelessness. Gerard-René de Groot, ‘Children, Their Right to a Nationality and Child Statelessness’ in Alice Edwards and Laura van Waas (eds), Nationality and Statelessness under International Law (Cambridge University Press 2014) 144, 161–63. Raymond A Atuguba, Francis Xavier Dery Tuokuu and Vitus Gbang, ‘Statelessness in West Africa: An Assessment of Stateless Populations and Legal, Policy, and Administrative Frameworks in Ghana’ (2020) 8(1) Journal on Migration and Human Security 14, 19–21. Bronwen Manby, Citizenship Law in Africa (3rd edn, African Minds 2016). Mai Kaneko-Iwase, Nationality of Foundlings: Avoiding Statelessness among Children of Unknown Parents under International Nationality Law (Springer 2021). ibid 11, 24.