Ирландия азаматтығына қатысты заңнамалар

Laws regarding Irish nationality

Article 2 and Article 3 of the Constitution of Ireland ([[Constitution of Ireland) were adopted with the Constitution of Ireland as a whole on 29 December 1937, but revised completely by means of the Nineteenth Amendment which became effective 2 December 1999. As amended, they grant the right to be "part of the Irish Nation" to all those people born on the island of Ireland; the articles also express a desire for the peaceful political unification of the island subject to the consent of the people of Northern Ireland and Ireland. Before 1999, Articles 2 and 3 made the claim that the whole island formed one "national territory".

The Irish Government was bound by the terms of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement to submit Articles 2 and 3 to amendment by referendum. As a result, the Nineteenth Amendment of the Constitution was adopted during June of the same year by 94% of those voting. The new wording describes the Irish nation as a community of individuals with a common identity rather than as a territory, and is intended to reassure unionists that a united Ireland will not happen without the consent of a majority of the Northern Ireland electorate.

It is the entitlement and birthright of every person born in the island of Ireland, which includes its islands and seas, to be part of the Irish Nation. That is also the entitlement of all persons otherwise qualified in accordance with law to be citizens of Ireland. Furthermore, the Irish nation cherishes its special affinity with people of Irish ancestry living abroad who share its cultural identity and heritage.

The drafters of the Constitution of Ireland during 1937 considered the partition of Ireland by the Government of Ireland Act 1920, and Northern Ireland's Opt Out of the Free State by the 1921 Anglo Irish Treaty, to be illegitimate. They desired the new constitution to proclaim the existence of a single 'Irish nation', and the theoretical right of the state to encompass the whole island, while for reasons of pragmatism recognising the de facto reality of partition, which resulted in delicate wording. The Constitution refers to two separate entities: a nation, encompassing the whole island of Ireland, and a state, extending, for the time being, only to the twenty six counties of the 'South'. In its 1937 form, Article 2 described the island of Ireland as the "national territory". Article 3, however, stated that the laws of the southern state would apply only to the South. The purpose of Article 3 was to clarify that Article 2 was intended largely as a kind of declaration, rather than as a provision that would have actual force of law.

Until their amendment during 1999 Articles 2 and 3 were the subject of some controversy, particularly among Unionists in Northern Ireland. To Northern Ireland Unionists the articles were a hostile claim upon their territory, and a declaration that they might be coerced into a united Ireland without their consent, and in violation of the sovereignty of the United Kingdom. Furthermore, they claimed, the articles constituted an extraterritorial claim to a part of a foreign nation and were therefore in violation of international law. For many decades the correct interpretation of the articles also caused some controversy among Irish nationalists. Some considered the constitution as placing an enforceable legal obligation on the government of the Republic to use its influence to actively seek the unification of the island. Invoking Article 2, some Northern Ireland nationalists elected to the UK parliament requested, but were denied, the right to be recognised in the southern parliament (the Oireachtas) as TDs (members of Dáil Éireann). Before 1999, however, the Irish Supreme Court affirmed in consistent rulings that Article 2 created no rights or obligations that were actually enforceable in a court of law. After the signing of the Anglo Irish Agreement of 1985, unionist politicians Christopher and Michael McGimpsey brought a suit against the Irish government in the High Court arguing that the Agreement was unconstitutional by Articles 2 and 3, because it recognised that Northern Ireland was part of the United Kingdom. This argument was unusual coming from unionists because of the traditional unionist opposition to these two articles, but was done to discredit an agreement they opposed, albeit not for the reasons they opposed it. Their case failed in the High Court, and again on appeal to the Supreme Court. Of the two main Unionist parties in Northern Ireland, the amended versions of Articles 2 and 3 were accepted by the Ulster Unionist Party but rejected by the Democratic Unionist Party as not representing an improvement on their predecessors. The DUP has, in recent elections, become the largest political party in Northern Ireland.

At midnight on 1 December 1999, the direct rule of the UK parliament ended in Northern Ireland when power was formally devolved to the new Northern Ireland Assembly. On 2 December 1999, power was devolved to the North/South Ministerial Council and the British–Irish Council when commencement orders for the British–Irish Agreement came into effect. However, Article 4(2) of the British–Irish Agreement (the Agreement between the British and Irish governments for the implementation of the Belfast Agreement) required the two governments to notify each other in writing of the completion of the requirements for the entry into force of the Belfast Agreement. Entry into force was to be upon the receipt of the later of the two notifications. The British government agreed to participate with a televised ceremony at Iveagh House in Dublin, the Irish department of foreign affairs. Peter Mandelson, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, attended early on 2 December 1999. He exchanged notifications with David Andrews, the Irish foreign minister. Soon after the ceremony, at 10.30 am, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern signed the declaration formally amending Articles 2 and 3 of the Irish Constitution. He then announced to the Dáil that the British–Irish Agreement had become effective (including certain supplementary agreements concerning the Belfast Agreement).

By granting an unqualified right to citizenship to all of those born on the island of Ireland, the new articles have also caused further controversy in the Republic. In January 2003, the Supreme Court ruled that it was constitutional for the Government to deport the parents of children who were Irish citizens. In October 2004 the European Court of Justice ruled (in the Chen case) that a mother who is neither a UK nor an Irish citizen, whose child was born in Northern Ireland and had subsequently (as was the child's entitlement) acquired Irish citizenship, had the right to live with her child in the UK, since denying this would in effect deny residence to the child, in violation of her rights as a citizen. The ECJ ruling acknowledged that, under certain circumstances, a person born in part of the UK (i. e. Northern Ireland) could not gain citizenship of that nation state, but could gain Irish citizenship, without having ever set foot in the Republic of Ireland, or having any connection with it. The Twenty seventh Amendment was approved by referendum on 11 June 2004, and was enacted on 24 June. It inserted a new section in Article 9 of the constitution stating that, "notwithstanding any other provision of [the] Constitution", no one would be automatically entitled to Irish citizenship unless they had at least one parent who was (or was entitled to be) an Irish citizen. The Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 2004 amended citizenship law to remove the entitlement to citizenship from those born on the island of Ireland who did not have an Irish citizen parent, or whose parents had not lived in Ireland for three of the previous four years. This law was commenced on 1 January 2005.