Optional additional exercise: Ask the students to look at the legislation and administrative procedures relevant to the reduction of statelessness in their own country and analyse this using the questions above. Alternatively, access the legislation of additional States via Refworld (http://www.refworld.org) or another database such as the European Union Democracy Observatory on Citizenship (http://eudo-citizenship.eu/). Hungary Act LV of 1993 on Hungarian Citizenship basically rests on the principle of jus sanguinis: A child born to a Hungarian citizen becomes a Hungarian citizen from birth regardless of the place of birth. The principle of jus soli may arise in two cases: (3) Until counter-proof is presented a person shall be considered a Hungarian citizen, if he/she (b) was born in Hungary, from stateless parents with residence in Hungary; (c) is a child found in Hungary born from unknown parents.1 The general conditions for obtaining Hungarian citizenship are the following: (1) A non-Hungarian citizen may be granted Hungarian citizenship upon application, if: (a) prior to his/her application he/she has been continuously living in Hungary for eight years; (b) he/she has no criminal record according to Hungarian law and there is no pending criminal procedure against him/her before a Hungarian court at the time of the application; (c) his/her livelihood and accommodation in Hungary is guaranteed; (d) his/her naturalisation would not endanger the interests of the Republic of Hungary; (e) he/she certifies to have successfully passed an examination on basic constitutional issues in Hungarian language, or is exempted from this examination based on the provisions of this Act.2 Stateless persons can apply for Hungarian citizenship with the general conditions as defined in Section 4 (1) of the Hungarian Citizenship Act. One preferential rule applies to them: the mandatory continuous residence in Hungary before application is reduced to five years (instead of eight) in their case.3 If the stateless foreigner is married to a Hungarian citizen for at least three years (or the wedlock ended because of the death of the spouse), if his/her minor child is a Hungarian citizen or if he/she is adopted by a Hungarian citizen, the period of mandatory residence before application is further reduced to three years.4 In Hungary, the President of the Republic makes determinations on applications for citizenship, upon the recommendation of the Minister of Justice and Law Enforcement.5 In practice, it is the Nationality Directorate of the Office of Immigration and Nationality that processes such claims. Negative decisions on citizenship claims do not contain justification and can be challenged neither through administrative appeal nor through judicial review mechanisms. Poland The Act on Polish Citizenship of 15 February 1962, while based on the jus sanguinis principle, includes a specific provision evoking jus soli: When both parents are unknown or their citizenships undetermined or they have no citizenship, their child shall acquire Polish citizenship if he/she is born or was found on Polish territory.6 The Polish Citizenship Act dedicates a separate section to the issue of stateless persons willing to obtain Polish nationality. According to Section 9 of the Act: 1. A person who has no citizenship or whose citizenship is undetermined can be recognised as a Polish citizen if that person has been residing in Poland for at least five years. 2. Recognition of a person as a Polish citizen takes place upon a motion submitted by that person. 1. Ibid., Section 3 (3). 2. Hungarian Citizenship Act, Section 4 (1). 3. Ibid., Section 4 (4) (c). 4. Ibid., Section 4 (2) (a)-(c). 5. Ibid., Section 6 (1). 6. Polish Citizenship Act, Section 5. 52 A Guide to Teaching on Statelessness