Germany - High Regional Court Schleswig-Holsteinisches, judgment 2 W 54/13

Court name: Schleswig-Holsteinisches High Regional Court
State: Germany
Date of decision:
Legal instruments: 1954 Statelessness Convention
Key aspects: Birth registration, Burden of proof, Standard of proof, Stateless status and documentation, Statelessness and asylum

The applicant was born in 2011 in Germany to a German father and a stateless mother. Her birth certificate contained the disclaimer that the mother's identity is "unconfirmed", which the applicant and the parents appealed against, as the stateless mother was extensively documented among others with a travel document for stateless persons issued by Germany. The Court upheld the appeal, and ordered the civil registry to issue a new birth certificate without disclaimers as to the mother's identity. 

France - Nantes Administrative Court of Appeal, case no. 14NT01490

Court name: Nantes Administrative Court of Appeal
State: France
Date of decision:
Legal instruments: 1954 Statelessness Convention
Key aspects: Birth registration, Burden of proof, Childhood statelessness, Standard of proof, Statelessness determination

The applicant was born in Taiwan, and entered France as an unaccompanied minor on a "borrowed" passport. Her application for stateless status was rejected, as she did not make sufficient effort to obtain Chinese nationality. OFPRA also relied on the applicant having had a "double identity" in France and therefore being untrustworthy, and on the fact that France does not recognise Taiwan as an independent state.