著者

鈴木 健司 SUZUKI Kenji

出版者

京都

雑誌

総合文化研究所紀要 = Bulletin of Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies of Culture Doshisha Women’s College of Liberal Arts (ISSN:09100105)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.38, pp.142-157, 2021-07-29

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This essay provides an overview of Canadian nation-building, deals with the British and Canadian regulations on nationality and citizenship, and examines how they affected each other. The process of Canada’s independence is sometimes referred to as “evolution,” in contrast to the American “Revolution.” Starting from British colonies, Canada achieved independence in stages, gradually separating from Britain: promotion to a Dominion, autonomous diplomacy, the British Commonwealth of Nations, and the patriation of the constitutional law from London. The same applies to Canadian nationality and citizenship. The origin of the concepts lies in the status of the British subject, inherited by the common law. Then, critical points came with the following regulations: (1) the British Naturalization Act of 1870, which finished up the traditional nationality system, defining the British subject based on the common law, (2) a series of Canadian laws from the 1910s to the 1920s on immigration, naturalization, and nationality, referring to Canadian citizenship and nationality for the first time, with the British Nationality and Status of Aliens Act 1914, which provided the common code over the status of the British subject, (3) the Canadian Citizenship Act 1946, which radically changed the relations between the concepts of British subject and Canadian citizenship, followed by the British Nationality Act 1948, which introduced a new classification of the British subject.