British Nationality Act 1948

The British Nationality Act 1948 was an Act of the British Parliament which established the status of Citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies (CUKC), the national citizenship of the United Kingdom and those places that were still British colonies on 1 January 1949, when the 1948 Act came into force. However, until the early 1960s there was little difference, if any, in United Kingdom law between the rights of CUKCs and other British subjects, all of whom had the right at any time to enter and live in the United Kingdom. The act effectively allowed any one of the 800 million subjects of the King in the British Empire to live and work in the UK, without needing a visa. One of the reasons why the act was implemented was that many of the MPs of the day thought that few citizens of the Empire would want to reside in the UK. Indeed, the Act was passed with little debate, in stark contrast to the current immigration debates in the UK. The Act was mostly repealed in 1983.

Early immigration

The Empire Windrush which brought immigrants from the Caribbean to Tilbury in 1948.

One of the early, famous examples of immigration was the arrival of the ship Empire Windrush from Sydney via Kingston, Jamaica, Bermuda, Trinidad, and Mexico at Tilbury Docks on the 21 June 1948. The ship carried 492 Jamican passengers, with 1,427 passengers in total, and this was one of the first large scale arrivals of afro-caribbean immigrants from the British Colonies in the West Indies.

Reform of the Act, and subsequent acts

Between 1962 and 1971, as a result of fears about increasing immigration by Commonwealth citizens from Asia and Africa, the United Kingdom gradually tightened controls on immigration by British subjects from other parts of the Commonwealth. The Immigration Act 1971 introduced the concept of patriality, by which only British subjects with sufficiently strong links to the British Islands (i.e. the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man) had right of abode, the right to live and work in the United Kingdom and Islands.

Most of the Act was replaced by the British Nationality Act 1981 with effect from 1 January 1983.

The Act today

The only significant provision of the Act to survive today is section 3, which concerns the extra-territorial jurisdiction of the criminal courts over crimes committed by British subjects overseas. Generally, British criminal law does not apply to things done overseas, but there are some exceptions for acts done abroad by British subjects, such as murder. Section 3 restricted the scope of this jurisdiction to CUKCs (except in respect of crimes which would be against UK law even if committed by aliens). This was necessary so that, for example, a Canadian citizen who committed murder in Canada could not be prosecuted for it in a British court instead of in Canada.

As modified by section 51 of the British Nationality Act 1981, section 3 now restricts this jurisdiction to British citizens, British Overseas Territories citizens, British Overseas citizens and British Nationals (Overseas).

(Note however that section 3 is subject to any subsequent legislation which is to different effect, such as section 72 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 (as amended).)

See also

• History of British nationality law
• British nationality law
• Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner
• Immigration Act

External links

• Template:UK-SLD
• British Nationality Act, 1948 (full original text)