The Bancroft treaties, also called the Bancroft conventions, were a series of agreements made in the late 19th and early 20th centuries between the United States and other countries.See They recognized the right of each party's nationals to become naturalized citizens of the other and defined circumstances in which naturalized persons were legally presumed to have abandoned their new citizenship and resumed their old one.See See For the text of the first Bancroft treaties see
Origin
Named for historian and diplomat George Bancroft (1800–1891), who negotiated the first of these agreements with Prussia,See the Bancroft treaties were mainly intended to prevent individuals from using naturalization as a way to avoid military service and other legal obligations in their native countries.See See Roberto Cordova, Special Rapporteur, "Nationality Including Statelessness: Report on Multiple Nationality," United Nations, Yearbook of the International Law Commission, Volume II, p. 44, New York, 1954 (A/CN.4/83). See also Manfred Jonas, The United States and Germany: A Diplomatic History, Cornell University Press, 1985, pp. 25-26.
From 1868 to 1937, the United States entered into 25 Bancroft treaties covering 34 foreign countries.There were bilateral treaties with Albania, Austria-Hungary, Baden, Bavaria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Brazil, Costa Rica, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, El Salvador, Haiti, Hesse, Honduras, Lithuania, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, Prussia, Portugal, the United Kingdom, Uruguay and Wurttemberg. For the text of the treaty with Great Britain see . Norway and Sweden were included in a single treaty signed in 1869 when the two countries were joined in a personal union under the Swedish monarchy. The Interamerican Convention of 1906 covered Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Cuba, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, Panama and Uruguay. For the text of the 1906 Inter-American Convention see . The treaties with each of the German states except Prussia became obsolete when the German Empire was proclaimed in 1871. The treaties with Prussia and Austria-Hungary lapsed with the American declaration of war in 1917 and were never revived. Brazil, Mexico and the United Kingdom terminated their treaties; and Bolivia, Brazil, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay withdrew from the 1906 convention.For the 1937 Treaty with Lithuania see A typical Bancroft treaty had three major provisions. The first specified the terms under which each party would recognize the naturalization of its citizens by the other. (Five years' uninterrupted residence in the adopted country was the usual requirement.) The second provided that naturalized citizens who returned to their native country could be prosecuted for crimes that they allegedly committed before they emigrated. The third and most important provided that naturalized citizens who returned to their country of origin and stayed there for two continuous years would be presumed to have resumed their former nationality. That would require them to meet any unfulfilled military service obligation in their native country and deny them the diplomatic protection of their adopted one. Article III of the 1908 treaty with Portugal was typical:
Constitutionality
Conceived in an era when the right of individuals to change their citizenship was not universally recognized, the Bancroft treaties represented an important step forward in securing recognition by foreign governments of the right of their nationals to become American citizens.<ref>For a description of the legal doctrine of "perpetual allegiance" of subjects to their sovereign and the role of the Bancroft treaties in hastening its decline, see [http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/alumni/uvalawyer/sp05/martin_lecture.htm David A. Martin, Dual Nationality: TR's "Self-Evident Absurdity"''', Chair Lecture, October 27, 2004, University of Virginia School of Law.] </ref> But American constitutional law eventually made the treaties obsolete.
In Schneider v. Rusk, 377 U.S. 163 (1964), the Supreme Court invalidated a section of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (the McCarran-Walter Act) that would strip naturalized Americans of their citizenship after three years' continuous residence in their country of origin; and in Afroyim v. Rusk, 387 U.S. 253 (1967), the Supreme Court, reviewing part of the Nationality Act of 1940, held that Congress has no power to strip anyone of their citizenship, whether it is acquired by birth or by naturalization. These decisions strongly suggested that any future case of involuntary loss of citizenship under one of the Bancroft treaties probably would not survive a Supreme Court challenge."Naturalization Treaties". 7 FAM 1270, Appendix A (d). United States Department of State. Retrieved December 16, 2015. "In the matter of Reid v. Covert, ... the U.S. Supreme Court established that provisions of treaties or executive agreements are unenforceable if they conflict with the Constitution.... [Schneider v. Rusk and Afroyim v. Rusk] strongly implied that if a case of involuntary loss of citizenship under one of the Bancroft treaties came before the Supreme Court, the expatriation provisions would be found unconstitutional."
Termination of the Bancroft treaties
Concluding that the Bancroft treaties were unenforceable, the administration of President Jimmy Carter, acting in consultation with the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, gave notice in 1980 terminating the treatiesFor termination of the naturalization treaties with Costa Rica, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Lithuania, Nicaragua, Norway, Peru, Portugal, Uruguay see Department of State Bulletin, v. 80, no. 2045, December 1980, pp. 79-80; And for termination of the naturalization treaties with Denmark and Sweden see Department of State Bulletin v. 81, no. 2046, January 1981, pp. 39-40 . with 18 of the 21 countriesArgentina, Belgium, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Denmark, Ecuador, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Lithuania, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Peru, Portugal, Sweden and Uruguay. Delivery of the termination notice to the Lithuanian consulate in Washington, DC, gave the United States an opportunity to emphasize that it did not recognize the incorporation of Lithuania into the Soviet Union. with which they were still in force. The exceptions were the treaties with Albania, Bulgaria and Czechoslovakia. The treaty with Albania was terminated in 1991 when Albania and the United States re-established diplomatic relations at the end of the Cold War. The treaty with the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic as successor states to the former Czechoslovakia was terminated by the United States in 1997.U.S. Department of State: Treaties in Force as of January 1, 1997, p. 66 at col. 2. . For the text of the treaty See In the last years of Barack Obama's Presidency the treaty with Bulgaria was terminated.See U.S. Department of State: Treaties in Force as of January 1, 2016, p. 50-52 and U.S. Department of State: Treaties in Force as of January 1, 2013, p. 34 at col. 3. See also Treaties in Force 2014/2015 - Supplement via US Department of State. Pursuant to Article 8 of the 1947 Treaty of Peace with Bulgaria, the United States notified Bulgaria in 1948 of its intent to maintain the Bancroft (naturalization) treaty in force. See . For the full text in American English and in Bulgarian of the Bancroft Naturalization treaty with Bulgaria see Naturalization Treaty between the United States and Bulgaria, signed November 23, 1923 via Foreign Relations of the United States at University of Wisconsin Digital Collections or via Internet Archive. Termination by country
+ Termination by countries CountryDate signedYear TerminatedTermination (Prussia) February 22, 18681917 Never revived after First World War May 26, 18681871 Proclamation of the German Empire July 4, 1868 Terminated by MexicoJuly 19, 18681871Proclamation of the German EmpireJuly 27,18681871Proclamation of the German Empire August 1, 18681871Proclamation of the German Empire November 16, 1868 1980 Terminated by President Jimmy CarterMay 26, 18691980Terminated by President Jimmy CarterSeptember 20, 18701917Never revived after First World WarFebruary 23, 18711953Terminated by the United Kingdom, December 15, 1953July 20, 18721980Terminated by President Jimmy CarterMarch 22, 19021980Terminated by President Jimmy CarterPan-American ConferenceAugust 13, 1906Several countries left the treatyMarch 14, 19081980Terminated by President Jimmy CarterApril 27, 19081951Decree no. 29200 of 24 January 1951, Government of Brazil .Terminated by BrazilAugust 10, 19081980Terminated by President Jimmy CarterMay 7, 19081980Terminated by President Jimmy CarterJune 23, 19081980Terminated by President Jimmy CarterOctober 15, 19071980Terminated by President Jimmy CarterDecember 7, 19081980Terminated by President Jimmy CarterJune 10, 19111980Terminated by President Jimmy CarterNovember 23, 19232017Terminated by President Barack ObamaJuly 16, 19281997Terminated between Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic April 5, 19321991Terminated when Albania and the United States re-established diplomatic relations in 1991October 18, 19371980Terminated by President Jimmy Carter
See alsoReid v. CovertTrop v. Dulles'' Multiple citizenship (Dual nationality) Naturalization Conscription Allegiance Expatriation
Notes
Notes and references
External links