Law Library
Statutes, judgments and explanations collected, translated or written over the years. Much of it is hard to find in English anywhere else. None of it is advice — it is the material the advice is built on.
Dutch nationality law
The core of the practice, and the part we are asked about most.
- About Dutch nationality lawHow the Dutch rules grew out of city citizenship and the Napoleonic period into the law that applies today.
- The 5-, 10- and 13-year clocks, and loss of Dutch nationalityThe changes since 1850 that decide whether, and when, Dutch nationality is lost without anyone telling you.
- The proportionality test — Tjebbes, 35859 (R2157)What the Court of Justice of the European Union said about automatic loss. Written in 2021 and kept as it was; the clocks page carries the current rules.
- Article 16(2e) and the Zuidwijk familyWhy the Zuidwijk children are still Dutch, set against the law as it stood in July 2021.
- Recognition of minors — RWN article 16(2e) and (2f)Where the Netherlands reads the single-nationality principle more strictly than the article requires, and what that costs children.
- Are you Dutch? Prove it!What the Dutch civil registration system already holds about you, and how to make it say so.
- About law — how to read any of thisA short note on using statutes as information rather than as advice, and on how often they change.
Nationality law elsewhere
Statutes from other jurisdictions, translated or collected, because dual nationality is decided by every country involved and not only by the Netherlands.
- Vietnam — Nationality LawThe Vietnamese position on dual nationality, which allows it only in a small number of cases.
- Malaysia — Nationality and Citizenship LawThe citizenship provisions as at 27 April 2023, including the registration clauses in full.
- Thailand — Nationality ActA general explanation first, then the Act itself translated into English.
- Japan — Nationality ActAct No. 147 of 4 May 1950, Japanese and English side by side.
- Myanmar (Burma) — Citizenship LawAn unofficial translation reproduced for reference. Not ours, and not endorsed by us.
- Ukraine — Law on CitizenshipThe citizenship law as it stood when the war began, published so that people could read it for themselves.
- South Africa — Citizenship ActFor the Dutch who settled in South Africa, the South Africans who came the other way, and the many who turn out to be both.
- South Africa — return or repair of citizenshipWhat the Supreme Court of Appeal decided about automatic loss since 1995, and the practical problems that follow on the Dutch side.
EU family rights
Free movement, and what it means for families where not everyone holds an EU passport.
- Non-EU parent of a minor EU child — Chavez-Vilchez and ZambranoWhen a child’s own EU citizenship gives a parent from outside the EU the right to stay, in the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Spain.
- Dutch verification against EU lawThe certificate of lawful residence for non-EU partners of EU and EEA citizens, and why the European route is often the gentler one.
International child abduction
The 1980 Hague Convention, and what happens when a country is party to it in name more than in practice.
- The 1980 Hague Convention — the case of JapanWhy cross-border divorce turns on which country the children are in, and what the Convention has and has not changed there.
- The 1980 Hague Convention — my years as a single dadKris’ own account of living through the Convention rather than reading about it.
Definitions and self-help
Start here if the vocabulary is the obstacle.
- Nationality, citizenship — what is the difference?The same two words mean the same thing in one country and two different things in the next. Which is which, and when it matters.
- Expat, migrant, emigrant, immigrant or refugee?Where the words come from, and what they have come to carry.
- How to get another nationalityThe routes that exist, and the questions worth settling before you choose one.
- Free self-help resourcesThe things you can do without us, gathered in one place, with the links.
Nothing in the library matches that. Try a shorter word, or go back to everything.
If you are looking for something that is not here, ask. A good deal of the material above exists because somebody wrote in and asked for it.