Birth in Dominica — exceptions, foundling and ship/aircraft

Example scenarios

• Deemed born in Dominica and a citizen of Dominica at birth, unless a contrary place of birth is shown.

  Citizenship Act s.2(3) provides that a new-born infant found abandoned in Dominica is, 'unless the contrary is shown, deemed to have been born in Dominica'. The deemed Dominican birthplace then triggers the s.98 jus-soli grant, making the infant a citizen at birth. The s.98 provisos cannot bite because the parentage is unknown (no one can show an immune-diplomat or enemy-alien parent). This is Dominica's principal domestic statelessness safeguard — important because Dominica is a NON-party to the 1954 and 1961 Statelessness Conventions, so the protection is purely domestic.

• Deemed born in Dominica and a citizen of Dominica at birth.

  Citizenship Act s.2(4) deems a person born aboard a REGISTERED ship or aircraft to have been born in the place in which the ship or aircraft was registered. The vessel is registered in Dominica, so the child is deemed born in Dominica regardless of being on the high seas, and acquires citizenship under s.98. The mother's foreign nationality is irrelevant to the deeming, and neither s.98 proviso applies. (Had the ship been registered in another country, the child would be deemed born in that country, not Dominica.)

• Deemed born in Dominica and a citizen at birth (s.18).

  Citizenship Act s.18 fills the gap left by s.2(4): 'a person born on an unregistered ship in Dominica's territorial waters or on an unregistered aircraft in the airspace of Dominica, shall be deemed to have been born in Dominica.' The craft is unregistered (so s.2(4)'s country-of-registration rule cannot attribute a birthplace) but it is within Dominica's territorial waters, so s.18 deems the birth to have occurred in Dominica. The s.98 jus-soli grant follows, the parents' foreign nationality is irrelevant, and neither proviso applies.

• NOT deemed born in Dominica by the deeming rules; deemed born in the ship's country of registration under s.2(4).

  The ship is REGISTERED (to a foreign country), so s.2(4) governs and deems the child born in the place of the ship's registration — not Dominica — even though the vessel was physically in Dominican waters. Section 18 does not apply because it is limited to UNregistered ships; the registration of this vessel takes it out of s.18 and into s.2(4). The child therefore does not acquire Dominican citizenship by birth through these rules and must rely on the flag-state's or parents' nationality. This scenario isolates the registered-vs-unregistered distinction that separates s.2(4) from s.18.

• The s.2(3) deeming is displaced ('the contrary is shown'); the person was never deemed born in Dominica, so the birthright status under s.98 does not stand — this is not a s.10 deprivation.

  Section 2(3) deems the foundling born in Dominica only 'unless the contrary is shown'. Where credible evidence later establishes a foreign place of birth, the presumption is rebutted and the s.98 jus-soli grant has no factual foundation — the person was never within s.98 in the first place. Crucially this operates by displacement of a rebuttable presumption, not by the s.10 deprivation power (which in any event reaches only registered/naturalised citizens). The person's nationality must then be assessed under the actual place of birth and parentage. This scenario illustrates the rebuttable character of the foundling rule and its boundary with the loss provisions.