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: I HI- I.HGAI. STATUS OK TUI; ARAM AN (iUl.K SI A I I S
the Union, namely, the Executive, the Legislative and the
Judiciary, and defines the extent of jurisdiction of each of these
Powers as well as their relationship with each other.

/. Nationality
The Provisional Constitution provides in Article 8 that “nationals of
the Union shall have one nationality to be defined by law” and that
)
they shall be entitled abroad to the protection of the Government of
the Union in accordance with accepted international rules. Further,
the same Article states that citizenship “shall not be cancelled or
withdrawn from a national, except in the exceptional cases
expressly provided by the law“.
The above constitutional provisions provide for the passing of a
unified nationality law for the Union. So far as the individual states
of the Union are concerned, the only member state of the Union
which has a nationality law is Abu Dhabi. However, long before the
formation of the Union, the individual Emirates were known to
have issued their own passports bearing their own official stamps.
These passports were held by the subjects of the Emirates as prinia
! facie evidence of the citizenship of the Emirates to which these
subjects belong.
(i) Nationality Law of the Union

Nationality of the United Arab Emirates is now governed by Union
Law No. 17 for 1972, concerning Nationality and Passports which
was issued by the President of the Union on 18 November 1972.1
Although it is stated in the Preamble of this Law that it has received
the sanction of the Federal National Council, and the ratification of
the Supreme Council, it is not known yet whether it has, in fact,
been implemented.
The Provisions of the Law on nationality, which comprises 21
Articles, deal, under three chapters, with (a) acquisition of
~'.r nationality, (b) loss of nationality, and (c) the authorities concerned
m with nationality matters.
(a) Acquisition of Nationality: The Union nationality can be'
acquired by the rule of law, or by virtue of dependence, or by
naturalisation, as prescribed by the provisions of the following
Articles, (Art. 1).
According to Article 2, a national by law is: (a) such a person,
domiciled in any of the Member Emirates in 1925, or before, who
has continued his ordinary residence in that Amirate until the date of
the commencement of this Law. The residence of ascendants shall

1. Official Gazette (U.A.E.) No. 7. Nov. 1972.