CChapter 3: Comparative analysis of nationality laws pending applications (many of which have already been awaiting a response for years). Despite being a form of administrative action, nationality decisions are expressly excluded from the jurisdiction of the administrative courts.182 This, however, seems to contradict a provision in the Kuwaiti Constitution stipulating that “Kuwaiti nationality shall be determined by law and nationality may not be forfeited or withdrawn unless within the limits of the law”,183 which would suggest that decisions on the withdrawal of nationality at least should be subject to some form of appeal in order to review compliance with the law. Moreover, there is jurisprudence to suggest that not all nationality questions are non-justiciable in Kuwait. In November 2007, the Court of Cassation ruled that the administrative circuit is competent to decide on a complaint regarding the refusal to issue a nationality certificate to a person who has already acquired nationality by operation of the law (in the case in point, a daughter of a Kuwaiti national father).184 It therefore appears that where the case concerns the confirmation of nationality through the issuance of the requisite documentation, rather than a dispute over access to nationality itself, there may be a role 182 - See article 20 of Law No. 20 (1981) on the establishment of administrative courts, as referenced in Human Rights Watch, Prisoners of the Past. Kuwaiti Bidun and the Burden of Statelessness, June 2011, at page 18. 183 - Article 27, Kuwait Nationality Law, 1959. 184 - Case 219/2006 decided on 27 November 2007. 139

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