Ana Rita Gil and Nuno Piçarra A third break from previous legislation was linked to the arrangements for loss of citizenship, which became exclusively voluntary. This was grounded in the principle of regarding the right to citizenship as an individual’s basic right and brought an end to the loss of citizenship for political reasons or as a punishment (arts. 26(1) and 30(4) of the Constitution). This curtailed any automatic loss of citizenship (ex lege), imposed by a decision from the administrative authorities or the involuntary loss of Portuguese citizenship (Miranda 2004: 123). Loss of citizenship could no longer be used by the state as a means of punishing an individual for not having a link to the Portuguese community or for not having been loyal to the state. Instead, it became the exclusive domain of the individual’s will, in addition to requiring a situation of dual citizenship in order to avoid statelessness (Ramos 1994: 129). The 1981 Act also introduced complete tolerance towards dual citizenship. It allowed for dual citizenship and reacquisition of citizenship by all those who had lost it through previous legislation, or as a result of voluntary acquisition of a foreign citizenship or due to marriage. On the one hand, acquisition of Portuguese citizenship no longer relied in any way on renouncing one’s foreign citizenship. On the other, acquisition of a foreign citizenship no longer resulted in the loss of Portuguese citizenship, as was the case under previous legislation. Lastly, the 1981 Act brought about profound changes concerning the right of appeal. The principle of effective jurisdictional protection of people’s rights (art. 20 of the Constitution) and the nature of citizenship as a basic right required that appeals on matters pertaining to Citizenship Law be lodged with the courts (Ramos 1992: 214). Under the terms of the 1959 Act, appeals concerning the acquisition, loss or reacquisition of citizenship could be lodged with the Minister of Justice – an administrative authority – whose decisions could be appealed in the Supreme Administrative Court. The 1981 Act made the Lisbon Court of Appeal the agent for appealing against any and all acts pertaining to the acquisition, loss or reacquisition of Portuguese citizenship – that is to say, a jurisdictional body. 2.7. Law 25/94 amending Law 37/81: restricting foreigners’ access to Portuguese citizenship Immigration to Portugal, particularly illegal immigration, increased significantly in the 1990s, leading to the first amendment of the 1981 Act by Law 25/94 of 19 August 1994. What concerned the government in 1994 was how to stem the growing number of immigrants who were acquiring Portuguese citizenship. There was also concern about various scandals related to fictitious marriages. The debate centred entirely on which restrictions should be placed on foreigners’ rights to citizenship. Once the government’s proposal had been cleansed of a few spurious attempts at xenophobia, the main political parties – the governing Social Democratic Party (PSD), the Centre Social Democratic-Popular Party (CDS-PP) and the Socialist Party (PS) voted in favour, while all the parties to the left of the Socialist Party (PS), voted against.31 The aim of the new amendment was to make it more difficult for foreigners to obtain citizenship at birth (via ius soli) and after birth (particularly through marriage or naturalisation). The grounds for citizenship for a child born to foreign parents in Portugal became more restrictive. The law required not only that the parents had Portugal as their habitual place of residence, but also that they held a residence permit. The aim of this was not only to exclude the children of illegal immigrants from obtaining citizenship, but also to exclude those who 31 10 Parliamentary Debates, Diary of the Assembly of the Republic 80, 1994: 2618. RSCAS/GLOBALCIT-CR 2020/1- © 2020 Author