SEEKING NATIONALITY THE JUDICIAL ODYSSEY OF APPLICANTS ∫ Committee of Legislation and Consultations: is a body made up of judges under the Ministry of Justice. It provides legal opinion and consultation to the different government ministries and departments on legal or administrative procedures and on law interpretation and implementation. ∫ Execution Department: It is a department of the Court of First Instance, headed by a Single Judge in the area of his/her territorial jurisdiction. Its duties include executing the various types of rulings and decisions issued by the courts, unless the law has explicitly assigned this duty to another authority. ∫ General Directorate of Personal Status: it falls under the Ministry of Interior and Municipalities. It handles all matters of civil status, nationality, and population censuses. This includes registering civil status events, keeping records of civil status, providing data on census records and civil status event documents, handling nationality papers, along with their acquisition, loss and restoration, giving permits for acquiring a foreign nationality, preparing monthly and annual civil records statistics. ∫ Guardianship Ruling: this is a ruling given to a person to look after the interest of a child or of an adult who is not capable of looking after his/ her own affairs. Shari’a courts issue guardianship ruling for Muslims and religious or civil courts for non-Muslims. ∫ Identification (Ta’arif) Attestation: is an attestation issued by the Mukhtar that indicates that the latter knows the person in question. This attestation mentions the bio data of the concerned individual. ∫ Jus Sanguinis: is a term denoting the biological bond that ties the newborn child to his parents (father or mother) by blood. ∫ Jus Soli: is a term denoting the bond that ties a person to a country as a result of being born in this country. ∫ Laissez-Passer Passport for Stateless Persons: A laissez-passer document is issued by the General Directorate of General Security stating that the nationality of the holder is not Lebanese. Laisse-Passer issued for stateless persons mentions “stateless” in the nationality box that indicate the status of the holder of the passport. ∫ Legitimation of Affiliation: a ruling issued by religious courts, which considers the new-born child a legitimate child of the parents. The ruling is issued in cases of the parent’s marriage post of the child’s birth, provided that the parents prove that they were capable of marriage during pregnancy and birth. ∫ Maktoum al Qayd (Unregistered): is an unregistered person who meets the conditions stipulated in Decision No. 2825 (issued on 30 August 1924) related to the acquisition of the Lebanese nationality but who is not registered in the population census of 1932. The descendants also benefit from this regulation. This term is being used also to denote a person born to a Lebanese father or grandfather who has the Lebanese nationality but whose birth was not registered in the father civil personal status records. ∫ Marriage Registration: is the process of registering a marriage at the Civil Status Registry. The marriage registration is completed when a new column for the newly wed man is opened in his family civil status records for his nuclear family. Following this, a copy of the marriage certificate should be sent to the Civil Status Registry of the newly wed woman to write off her from family Civil Status Record. ∫ Mukhtar: A locally elected person mandated to conduct a number of official functions in his/her constituency. ∫ Nationality Lawsuit: is a lawsuit that aims to establish a political linkage between the claimant and the state, to create a new civil personal status record. This lawsuit is filed before the Court of First Instance. ∫ Naturalization: is an administrative discretionary decision (Decree) by which a foreign citizen acquires the Lebanese nationality upon his/her request. ∫ Nomadic Tribes: They are Arab Bedouin clans, with branches in various countries of the Middle East region, who had traditionally wandered between these countries and herded livestock, until the middle of the past century, when most of them settled in the countries of their habitual residence. Resolution No. 800 of 2/2/1922 organized a census for nomadic Arabs and their livestock. The tribe had to give proof of residency in Lebanon for at least 6 months a year during the 1932 census in order to be counted as Lebanese. ∫ Non-Contentious Judgment: is issued by civil judge and does not involve an opposing party nor an applicant and defendant. Such rulings do not have the same power as a res judicata. The judge may also revoke it upon the request of one of the parties if new circumstances arise or new causes are found that were not known at the time of the original judgment, provided that this does not infringe on any rights acquired by other parties in good faith on the basis of the mentioned judgment. It may also be revoked upon the request of an affected third party through an objection. ∫ Original Lebanese Nationality: is the nationality acquired based on grounds of registration of the person or his ascendants in the 1932 population census as Lebanese. The 1932 constitutes today the basis for acquiring the original Lebanese nationality i.e., if a person meets the two conditions of Decision 2825 – being a Turkish subject residency in Lebanon on 30 August 1924, and who acquired the Lebanese nationality according to Decision 1925/25. SEEKING NATIONALITY | GLOSSARY FRONTIERS RIGHTS 14