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22 Brit. Y.B. Int'l L. 122 (1945)
Who are British Protected Persons

handle is hein.journals/byrint22 and id is 126 raw text is: WHO ARE BRITISH PROTECTED PERSONS? By J. MERVYN JONES, M.A. Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge THE position of British Protected Persons has hitherto received little attention from writers on constitutional and international law. The practical importance of the question is obvious from the fact that the number of such persons runs to many millions. Yet of their position there is little or nothing to be found in the text-books. This may partly be accounted for by the fact that questions regarding their status rarely arise in the experience of English practitioners and do not come before the courts. The position of British Protected Persons is largely governed by the practice and prerogative of the Crown, but this practice is now so settled that the main principles can be stated with considerable certainty and detail.' First it will be well to clear up a confusion which may exist in the minds of some English lawyers regarding the conception of nationality. The British Nationality and Status of Aliens Act, 1914, does not, in spite of its title, define nationality; it deals with the status of a British subject which is a type of British nationality. Nationality is not in fact a technical term of English law at all; the literature of the common law speaks of subjects, denizens, and naturalized persons, but the use of the word nationality is comparatively recent and has been borrowed from international usage.2 Nationality is a conception which belongs to international law. It only arises because of the existence of separate states, without which it would have no meaning. Similarly, the term nationals is derived from international law and practice, and its meaning is to be found there and not in any system of municipal law. This is not to say that international law defines the conditions in which the status of nationality arises in any particular state. If, however, we are to know what is the legal conception of nationality and nationals in general, it is to international, not municipal, law that we must turn. The word nationals means all those persons who are connected with a State by a special legal tie and whom a State is entitled to protect in its relations with other states. It is equivalent to the French word ressortissants, and it will be found that in treaties which are in English and in French, such as the peace treaties after the war of 1914-18, the two terms are used one as equivalent of the other.3 A state's nationals include (a) individuals and (b) juridical persons. It is sufficient for the present purpose to say that those juridical persons which are created under the law of the State are its nationals. As regards individuals (the subject of this article), the legal tie 1 1 am greatly indebted to Mr. W. E. Beckett, C.M.G., for valuable advice and assistance in writing this article, and for making it possible to obtain the information on which it is based. The responsibility for any statements made in it, or for any opinions expressed in it, is, however, entirely mine. 2 The word itself is said to originate in English not earlier than 1828: Shorter Oxford Dictionary (1936). 3 See Kahane (Successor) v. Parisi and the Austrian State decided by the Austro-Roumanian Mixed Arbitral Tribunal: Annual Digest of Public International Law Cases (1929-30), Case No. 131. This case involved the interpretation of the word nationals (ressortissants) used in the text of Article 249 (e) of the Treaty of St. Germain, 1919.

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