Polish Citizenship of the Parent as a Prerequisite for the Acquisition of Polish Citizenship by Birth (in the Light of the Recent Jurisprudence of the Supreme Administrative Court)

According to Article 14(1) of the Act on Polish Citizenship of 2 April 2009, by operation of law a minor acquires Polish citizenship by birth if ‘at least one of the parents is a Polish citizen’. Likewise, Article 6(1), first sentence, of the formerly applicable Act on Polish Citizenship of 15 February 1962 stipulated as follows: ‘The child of parents, one of whom is a Polish citizen and the other a citizen of another country, acquires Polish citizenship by birth’. Although the latter of the cited provisions remained in effect until 14 August 2012, it is still applied in the jurisprudence of administrative courts due to the need to resolve citizenship of children born while it was in effect. Particularly in recent times the Supreme Administrative Court actively moulds the understanding of the abovementioned legal provisions (especially as regards the term ‘parents’ used therein), proceeding – depending on the child’s birthdate – either based on Article 6(1), first sentence, of the previously applicable Act on Polish Citizenship of 15 February 1962, or on the basis of Article 14(1) of the Act on Polish Citizenship of 2 April 2009. The primary subject of the analysis undertaken in the article are four judgments of the Supreme Administrative Court dated 30 October 2018, which are derived from the approach that: – the issue of acquiring citizenship ‘is exclusively subject to the public law regime’; – ‘norms of family law that indicate the methods of confirming biological kinship between a child and parents’, do not apply to the acquisition of citizenship; – ‘concepts of public law should not be interpreted through the lens of private law principles and norms’.