Report on Citizenship Law: East Timor (Timor-Leste) nation’ [Article 20-IV].8 Article 21 stated that ‘all Portuguese are citizens’ and set the criteria for the recognition of that ‘quality’. Portuguese were the children born in the United Kingdom to a Portuguese father9 and the children born abroad to a Portuguese father10, provided in this case that they established their domicile in the Kingdom. The residence requirement was waived if the father was abroad in the service of the nation. Portuguese were also the foundlings found in any part of the United Kingdom, of unknown parents; the freed slaves; the children of a foreign father born and domiciled in the United Kingdom, who declared their wish to be Portuguese upon reaching majority; and the foreigners who obtained a naturalisation letter (carta de naturalização). Per Article 22, any foreigner domiciled in the Kingdom could obtain a naturalisation letter after marrying a Portuguese woman, acquiring assets or exercising useful commercial or industrial activities in the Kingdom, or rendering relevant services to the nation. There were, therefore, in theory, many grounds for persons born and/or domiciled in East Timor to be considered Portuguese, although not all individuals born in the territory were automatically granted the status. This became the case, however, soon after, under the Constitutional Charter of 1826,11 which recognised as Portuguese all those born in Portugal or its dominions, even if to a foreign father, provided that the father was not in Portugal or its dominions in the service of his nation (‘diplomatic exception’) [Article 7 (1)]. The first Portuguese Civil Code, adopted in 1867,12 reaffirmed this rule, by establishing that Portuguese citizens were, among others, those born in the kingdom to a Portuguese father and a Portuguese mother13 [Article 18 (1)]; those born in the kingdom to a foreign father, if the father was not in the kingdom in the service of his nation, unless they declared their wish not to be Portuguese [Article 18 (2)]; and those born in the kingdom to unknown parents or to parents of unknown citizenship [Article 18 (4)]. This strong ius soli tradition was continued and strengthened by the first Portuguese Nationality Act, of 1959.14 Under the heading ‘attribution by mere effect of the law’, the Nationality Act identified as Portuguese those born in Portuguese territory to a Portuguese father [Article 1 (1) (a)]; to a Portuguese mother, if the father was unknown, stateless or of unknown citizenship [Article 1 (1) (b)]; to stateless or unknown parents or to parents of unknown citizenship [Article 1 (1) (c)]; to a foreign father, unless the father was in Portuguese territory in the service of his state [Article 1 (1) (d)]; to a foreign mother, if the father was unknown, stateless or of unknown citizenship, unless the mother was in Portuguese territory in the service of her state [Article 1 (1) (e)]. 8 Similar provisions were included in the subsequent constitutional texts, under the Monarchy and the Republic, until 1976 – Article 2 of the 1826 Constitution; Article 2 of the 1838 Constitution; Article 1 of the 1933 Constitution. The only exception is the first republican Constitution, of 1911, which merely stated that the territory of the Portuguese nation was the one which existed at the time of the proclamation of the Republic (Article 2). 9 Or to a Portuguese mother, if illegitimate. 10 Or to a Portuguese mother, if illegitimate. 11 In force between 1826 and 1828, again between 1834 and 1836, and from 1842 until 1910. Text available at https://www.parlamento.pt/Parlamento/Documents/CartaConstitucional.pdf [30.09.2016]. From 1911 onwards, all republican constitutional texts referred to ordinary legislation the definition of the criteria for the identification of Portuguese citizens – Article 74 of the 1911 Constitution; Article 7 of the 1933 Constitution; Article 4 of the 1976 Constitution. 12 Available at http://www.fd.ulisboa.pt/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Codigo-Civil-Portugues-de-1867.pdf [30.0.2016]. The Civil Code was made applicable to the overseas provinces in 1869, by Decree of 1 December 1869, the Organic Charter of the Administrative Institutions of the Overseas Provinces. The Decree recognised a separate civil status for the natives who had not yet converted to Catholicism, allowing them to continue to live by their traditional norms and practices, instead of by the Civil Code, since the Civil Code only applied to the civilised members of the population (Silva 2009: 212-225). 13 Or only to a Portuguese mother, if illegitimate. 14 Law no. 2098, of 29 July 1959. Text available at https://dre.pt/application/file/431555 [30.09.2016]. RSCAS/GLOBALCIT-CR 2017/7 - © 2017 Author 5