Estabelecimento Documental da Cadeia de Descendência da Primeira República (§ 5 restauração operativa coloquialmente)

• Citation: RT I 1995, 12, 122; consolidated text RT V, 28.07.2025, 2
• URL: https://www.riigiteataja.ee/en/tolge/text/528072025002

1991 legal foundation: Resolution "On Estonian Citizens" passed by Riigikogu on 20 August 1991 (at the Emergency Session that also passed the Declaration of Independence); recognized all pre-1940 Estonian citizens and their descendants as Estonian citizens by right.

International basis: State Continuity Doctrine — Estonia's position that the Soviet occupation (1940–1991) was illegal under international law; therefore the Estonian state was never extinguished, only temporarily occupied; citizenship law continued to operate in suspension.

Verbatim KodS § 5(1)(1) operative provision:

Estonian citizenship is acquired by birth by:

1. a child at least one of whose parents holds Estonian citizenship at the time of the birth of the child;

§ 4 Certificate of Citizenship:

A certificate of citizenship is issued in accordance with the rules provided in this Act to everyone who acquires or restores their Estonian citizenship.