Dual nationality and ethnic minorities in Hungary and Croatia

Matters of nationality are generally considered to be within the domestic jurisdiction of States. While previously States strived for the reduction of cases of multiple nationality, the unprecedented scale of labour migration and mixed marriages, coupled with the attempts of several Central and South Eastern European States to strengthen integration between mother countries and external kin-minorities have led to the reconsideration of municipal citizenship regimes. Consequently, Western countries show an increasingly tolerant attitude towards multiple nationality. The first part of this study examines certain aspects of this problem, focusing on the latest amendment of the Hungarian Citizenship Act, granting nationality to ethnic Hungarians living abroad, without requiring that they take up residence in Hungary as well as the Slovak retaliatory steps. The study argues that there is nothing in international law prohibiting multiple nationality, or the loss of nationality upon acquisition of nationality of another State. Nevertheless, neither acts seem to actually promote the cause of minorities or the friendly relations between Hungary and Slovakia. The second part of the study focuses on peculiarities of the Croatian approach to multiple nationality. The Republic of Croatia serves as an example for showing the specificities of the legal approach to dual citizenship under the circumstances of fall of a multiethnic federation and emergence of new States. Relevant codifications, especially on a bilateral level, are analysed as well as the challenges the Republic of Croatia is facing on the way of achieving a balance between the right to multiple nationality and effective protection of ethnic minorities.