Legal briefing: Statelessness and the right to respect for private and family life October 2024 it would have the effect of depriving the child from their rights under the 1954 Convention, if the child leaves with their parents, or of disproportionately infringing the right to respect for family life of the parents, contrary to Article 8 ECHR, if the child remains in France separated from their parents. In Austria,240 the Supreme Administrative Court ruled that the deportation of a mother and her two daughters from Austria to Georgia was disproportionate. It held that the lawfulness of the deportation must be carried out at the time it is executed, so the return decision, which is the basis of the deportation, may lose its effectiveness if, in the meantime, the weighing of interests under Article 8 ECHR is in favour of the applicants. The court found that the twelve-year-old daughter had continued to integrate in the 16 months between the issuance of the return decision and the deportation and, taking the best interests of the child into consideration, the factual situation had therefore changed to such an extent that the deportation was to be considered disproportionate. In Bulgaria,241 the Sofia City Administrative Court ruled that the issuance of a return order to a stateless person from the former Yugoslavia disproportionately affected the applicant's right to private and family life under Article 8 ECHR. The Court established that the administrative authorities did not consider the fact that the applicant was legally married to a Bulgarian national, had a child who was also a Bulgarian national, and had been residing in Bulgaria for the past 25 years. The Court concluded that the national authorities shall take due account of the best interests of the child and family life when issuing return orders, as well as the fact that the applicant has cut all ties with his country of origin, where he does not appear in the civil registry system. Deprivation, denial and renunciation of nationality The deprivation, denial, and renunciation of nationality has been addressed in several domestic contexts in relation to Article 8 ECHR. In the context of loss of nationality, the Constitutional Court of Austria242 found that an applicant who automatically lost her Austrian nationality due to voluntarily re-acquiring another nationality interfered with Article 8 ECHR. The applicant had renounced her Turkish nationality in 1996 in order to acquire Austrian nationality, as Austria has a singlenationality rule, but she later re-acquired Turkish nationality. The Court concluded that, in determining if the applicant had lost Austrian nationality and in addition to the conditions established in national law, the authorities should have conducted a proportionality test to consider the consequences of losing EU citizenship (in line with the CJEU’s decision in Tjebbes). The balance between an individual’s private and family life and the public interest of the State is often addressed by national courts in decisions to withdraw or deny the granting 240 Austria, Supreme Administrative Court, Ra 2022/21/0093, 26 July 2022. Bulgaria, Sofia City Administrative Court, Case No 5935/2020, Judgement No.5136, 6 October 2020. 242 Austria, Constitutional Court, Ra 2018/01/0477, 30 September 2019. 241 41