Homework answers / question archive / LAW2222: Public International Law S3, 2022 MID-SEMESTER ASSIGNMENT: LEGAL ADVICE ON LEGISLATIVE SAFEGUARDS TO PREVENT OR REDUCE STATELESSNESS 1 A Assignment Topic, Purpose and Background Information 1 Topic and Instructions Numenoria is a beautiful little country that is located not far from Australia

LAW2222: Public International Law S3, 2022 MID-SEMESTER ASSIGNMENT: LEGAL ADVICE ON LEGISLATIVE SAFEGUARDS TO PREVENT OR REDUCE STATELESSNESS 1 A Assignment Topic, Purpose and Background Information 1 Topic and Instructions Numenoria is a beautiful little country that is located not far from Australia

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LAW2222: Public International Law
S3, 2022
MID-SEMESTER ASSIGNMENT: LEGAL ADVICE ON LEGISLATIVE SAFEGUARDS
TO PREVENT OR REDUCE STATELESSNESS 1
A Assignment Topic, Purpose and Background Information
1 Topic and Instructions
Numenoria is a beautiful little country that is located not far from Australia.2 Numenoria has
recently joined the United Nations and is considering acceding to the Convention on the
Reduction of Statelessness, opened for signature 30 August 1961, 989 UNTS 175 (entered
into force 13 December 1975).
You are an international lawyer. Numenoria has engaged you to review its current
nationality legislation to determine whether any amendments will be needed to ensure that it
conforms to the terms of the 1961 Convention.
The Nationality Act 1967 (Numenoria) is provided below. Read the legislation carefully and
identify any provisions that might lead to statelessness, as well as good practices that help to
avoid statelessness.
Discuss what amendments you would propose to bring the Nationality Act 1967 (Numenoria)
into line with the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. If relevant, note other
international treaty provisions and advise on ways to amend the Numenorian Nationality Act
1967 to comply with these other provisions. You should assume that Numenoria has signed
and ratified all relevant international human rights treaties.
In addition, since the Numenorian authorities are particularly interested in avoiding
statelessness among children, suggest how the Nationality Act 1967 could be further
reformed to maximise the prevention of childhood statelessness. Discuss your answer with
reference to issues or examples which have arisen in other countries regarding statelessness,
stateless peoples or citizenship laws.
1 This topic is based on an exercise published by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
2 Numenoria is a fictitious State but you must advise as though it were a real State.
Nationality Act 1967 (Numenoria)
Section 1
(1) Citizens of Numenoria by birth are those persons born in the territory of Numenoria either to a
male citizen of Numenoria, or to a female citizen if the father of the child is deceased before birth,
unknown or stateless.
(2) Those persons born to a male citizen of Numenoria outside the territory of Numenoria are also
citizens by birth, as long as their births have been registered within one year after birth with the
Numenorian consulate responsible for the State where the person was born.
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Section 2
Any person who is born outside of Numenoria to a Numenorian mother shall have the right to
become a national of Numenoria upon reaching 18 years of age if the following conditions are
fulfilled:
(a) He shall have made Numenoria his permanent residence when he reaches 18 years of age;
(b) He is of good conduct and sound character and has not been convicted of a crime or with
imprisonment for a period exceeding six months for an indecent act;
(c) He has an understanding of the language of Numenoria; and
(d) He submits an application for Numenorian nationality within six months after his 18th
birthday.
Section 3
The birth of any child in Numenoria, regardless of whether the parents have the nationality of
Numenoria, must be notified to the representative or to the officials of the Personal Status
Registry Office. The child must be registered within one year of birth.
Section 4
The representative or the official of the Births & Deaths Registration Office in Numenoria shall
register the birth of any minor in the Birth Register. The following information must be provided
for entry into the Register:
(a) Hour, day, month, year and place of birth (province, district, city/village) and date of birth
registration;
(b) Name, family name and gender of the child;
(c) Name, family name, identity card number or the number of the residence permit or
passport, and the place of issuance of the identity card or residence permit or passport, and the
place of residence of a parent; and
(d) A declaration by the doctor or the official obstetrician or by the authorities of the
establishment where the child was born. If such a declaration is unavailable, the name, family
name, identity card number and place of issuance of the identity card and the place of
residence of two witnesses must be provided.
Note: After registration of the birth, if the child is of Numenorian nationality, the identity card
shall be issued and delivered and notification shall be sent to the branch of the Births & Deaths
Registration Office of the place where the identity booklet of either of the parents was issued so
that the birth can be registered in the Birth Register on the page specified for the parents. If the
child is a foreigner, only the birth certificate shall be issued and delivered.
[...]
Section 8
If any doubt exists about the identity and the nationality of the individuals and the necessary
documents are not presented to prove identity or nationality, in order to establish the identity, the
case shall be referred to the police department in order to establish the nationality. Until the
identity and the nationality are established, the birth of the child shall not be entered into the Birth
Register and the birth certificate shall be retained.
[...]
Section 13
Nationality by naturalisation may not be given to a person unless he can provide proof that he has
renounced his original nationality.
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2 Purpose of Assignment
This assignment gives students the opportunity to
• review and interpret domestic citizenship provisions with a particular focus on risks of
statelessness;
• review and analyse the overall approach and content of the Convention on the Reduction
of Statelessness, opened for signature 30 August 1961, 989 UNTS 175 (entered into
force 13 December 1975);
• appreciate strengths and weaknesses of the 1961 Convention, particularly in relation to
the avoidance of statelessness among children;
• distinguish between and explain domestic citizenship provisions that may lead to
statelessness and provisions that may reduce or avoid statelessness;
• identify and discuss strengths and weaknesses of international standards for the
avoidance of statelessness, with particular regard to statelessness among children and
statelessness resulting from discriminatory provisions; and
• research and explain statelessness-related issues or examples which have arisen in other
countries.
3 Background Information on Statelessness
Nationality is a legal bond between a person and a State. People’s nationality provides them
with a sense of identity but, more importantly, enables them to exercise a wide range of
rights. Without a nationality, stateless people are often denied the rights and services that
[...]
Section 16
Nationality of Numenoria shall be withdrawn from any person who has acquired such nationality
by naturalisation, in the following cases:
(a) If he commits or attempts to commit an action which is deemed dangerous for the security
or safety of the country;
(b) If he has been punished repeatedly for crimes of dishonour;
(c) If the data upon which the nationality has been granted were proven to be forged,
fraudulent or containing deception; or
(d) If he resides outside the country without valid reasons for a period exceeding four years.
If a person’s nationality is withdrawn on the basis of this section of the Nationality Act, it may
accordingly be withdrawn from his wife and minor children.
[…]
Section 23
(1) The following decisions are not open to be reviewed by the Numenorian Administrative
Appeals Tribunal:
(a) a decision under section 13 to refuse to give a person nationality by naturalisation;
(b) a decision under section 16 to withdraw Numenorian nationality from a person.
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countries normally offer their citizens. Statelessness can therefore be harmful and, in some
cases, devastating to the lives of the individuals concerned.3
Most situations of statelessness are a direct consequence of discrimination based on ethnicity,
religion or gender. According to the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees
(‘UNHCR’), 25 countries at present deny women the right to pass their nationality on to their
children on an equal basis with men, a situation that can create chains of statelessness that
span generations. There is also a very real link between statelessness, displacement and
regional stability, and new risks of statelessness are emerging with the growing number of
major conflicts. For example, the wars in the Central African Republic and Syria have forced
millions of people into internal displacement or becoming refugees.4
In 2014, the UNHCR marked the 60th anniversary of the Convention relating to the Status of
Stateless Persons5 which, together with the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of
Statelessness,6 provides the international legal basis for ending statelessness. According to
the UNHCR, tackling statelessness still poses a major challenge in the 21st century. At least
10 million people worldwide are currently stateless and a baby is born stateless every 10
minutes: ‘Statelessness can mean a life without education, without medical care or legal
employment… a life without the ability to move freely, without prospects or hope.’7
Eight years later, millions of people without citizenship are still mired in a terrible political
and human rights limbo.8 Government measures to tackle COVID-19, including lockdowns
and restrictions, border closures and priority health services and vaccination for their citizens,
have exacerbated the challenges experienced by refugees and stateless people.9
The issue of statelessness has also been topical here in Australia, and in other developed
countries such as the United Kingdom and Canada, in view of Australian citizenship laws and
policy which have provided for loss of Australian citizenship for nationals whose conduct is
deemed to be inconsistent with their allegiance to Australia or to repudiate their allegiance to
Australia or whose citizenship would be contrary to the public interest.
B General Assignment and Submission Information
1 Assignment Marks and Due Date
This assignment is marked out of 40 and is worth 40% of the total marks for the course. The
assignment marking criteria are set out in the table at the end of this document.
The assignments are due by 3 January 2023 and must be submitted electronically (see
instructions below) by 11.59 pm on 3 January 2023, as indicated on the course website
3 United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees (‘UNHCR’), Preventing and Reducing
Statelessness: The 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness (UNHCR, 2014) 1-2.
4 UNHCR, ‘UNHCR announces push to end statelessness by end-2024’ (Press Release, 4 November 2014).
5 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, opened for signature 28 September 1954, 360 UNTS
117 (entered into force 6 June 1960).
6 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, opened for signature 30 August 1961, 989 UNTS 175 (entered
into force 13 December 1975).
7 UNHCR, above n 3.
8 UNHCR, ‘UNHCR urges governments to accelerate progress and resolve plight of world’s stateless’ (Press
Release, 4 November 2021).
9 UNHCR, ‘UNHCR warns stateless people risk being left behind in coronavirus response’ (Press Release, 12
May 2020); and ‘UNHCR warns of vaccine gap risk for world’s stateless’ (Press Release, 22 June 2021).
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(‘UniSQ Time’). Assignments must be submitted by the due date or an approved extension
date (see extension information below).
2 Assignment Information: Title Page and Word Limits
This assignment should be written as an essay, with a distinct introduction, main part and
conclusion. However, there is no single correct format for the assignment, as long as you
present the information that has been asked for clearly and coherently. Write in an
appropriate professional font (for example, Times New Roman 12-point) and with
appropriate page margins. Please add page numbers to your document for ease of reference.
You should create a simple assignment title page that clearly identifies the assignment, course
code and name, your name and full student ID number (which is not your student email
address number) and your assignment word count.
Do not copy assignment topic information into your assignment – the marker will already be
familiar with the topic and instructions.
The total word count for the assignment is 2,000 words, calculated electronically. The word
count does not include your title page, bibliography, headings, footnotes or footnote
information. The word count also does not include any restatement of the assignment
information, so do not provide extensive quotes from the assignment topic in your
assignment. However, the word limit will be applied to any discursive text that has been
placed in the footnotes. In other words, the word limit cannot be circumvented by relocating
text from the body of the assignment to the footnotes.
You must indicate your assignment word count on the title page of the assignment. The word
limit is a maximum limit only. There is no minimum word length for the assignment,
although you should appreciate that the less you write, the greater the likelihood that you
have not addressed relevant points as well as you could, and your marks may reflect that.
A student’s compliance with the assignment word length can be quickly validated by the
marker. The marker is entitled to stop marking when the assignment word length has been
reached. Any material in excess of the assignment word length may not be marked.
3 Style Guide, References and Bibliography
Students studying this course must format and reference their assignments in accordance with
the Australian Guide to Legal Citation (4th ed, 2018) (‘AGLC4’) at
. A pdf copy of the AGLC4 is available on the
course website. If you have any style guide questions, consult the UniSQ Library’s
referencing information at or contact the Law Librarian.
Note: In the assignment marking criteria, marks are allocated for formatting and referencing
your assignment in accordance with the AGLC4.
You must footnote the sources on which you have relied when researching and writing the
assignment. You must also include a bibliography at the end of your assignment which must
be formatted in accordance with the AGLC4. No extra marks will be given for references in
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your bibliography or footnotes but the course examiner will review them and expect that you
have consulted and cited a variety of appropriate sources for the assignment.
Note that in your assignment, you should not refer to information from Wikipedia or the
study modules, because Wikipedia information is inherently unreliable and the study modules
are not a published source.
4 Submission Instructions
Assignments should be saved with the criteria sheet as the last page and submitted as one
document (doc, docx or rtf). Please submit one (1) assignment file only: your assignment +
the criteria sheet.
Please include your name and student ID number in the header or footer of your assignment
document and include your name and student ID number in the name of your saved
assignment file.
By submitting your assignment, you declare that
• no part of your assignment has been written by or with any other person or copied from
any other person’s work except where appropriate acknowledgement has been made in the
text; and
• you retain a copy of your assignment which can be produced upon request.
The course examiner will not accept assignments submitted by email, facsimile or post.
Students may be required to provide a copy of their assignment submitted for assessment
purposes which should be sent to the course examiner within 24 hours of a request to do so.
(a) How to submit
The assignments must be submitted electronically via the ‘SUBMIT Mid-semester
assignment’ link available under the ‘Assessments’ tab on the left side of the course page
and following the steps below:
1. Click on the ‘SUBMIT Mid-semester assignment’ link, and then click on the ‘Add
Submission’ button.
2. On the submission page, you will see the following important statements:
• ‘I agree that my uploaded files will be submitted to the plagiarism detection service
with Turnitin.com.’
• ‘This assignment is my own work, except where I have acknowledged the use of the
works of other people’ – you must tick the box to acknowledge this statement.
3. Upload your assignment into the file submissions box.
4. Click on ‘Save changes’ to save the assignment upload.
5. Once your assignment file has been uploaded, it will be submitted to Turnitin. You will
receive email confirmation of your assignment submission. A message will also appear
on the page where you submitted the assignment to confirm that your submission has
been successfully uploaded to Turnitin and display a Turnitin submission ID number.
6. You can amend and resubmit your assignment until the due date, at which time your last
submission will be the assignment that is marked. Each (re)submitted document will
generate its own Turnitin Originality Report (see below for more information).
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Note: It may take up to 24 hours for a report to be issued from Turnitin (although in practice
this is generally not the case), depending on the number of submissions being considered.
(b) Information about Turnitin
When you upload your assignment, it will be checked by Turnitin.com for examples of
matching text. Turnitin is a web-based text-matching software programme that allows
students and staff to check documents for examples of incorrect or inadequate citation or
copying without referencing.
Turnitin compares electronically-submitted documents against current and archived web
pages, university and school student papers (including other UniSQ assignments) and
scholarly literature and identifies any examples of unoriginal content. Once the submitted
document has been checked, it is returned with any matching text highlighted and showing
links to the original sources. This is called an Originality Report.
An Originality Report provides submission information and a similarity index (that is,
percentage matches for text that matches other sources) for your assignment. The highlighted
text will show links to the original sources of the matching text.
Some similarities are inevitable – you should not be too concerned if your assignment
shows matching text or high similarity scores.
For example, Turnitin will highlight text which matches commonly-repeated terms or phrases
which will inevitably appear in many assignments (e.g. ‘promotion and protection of human
rights’ or ‘reduction of statelessness’). Turnitin may also identify and highlight quotes that
are used in the assignments. However, if students have correctly used these phrases and
accurately set out and referenced their quotes, these sorts of similarities are likely to be
normal and acceptable. They are also obvious from the Turnitin report, so students should
not be worried by them. The course examiner is familiar with these sorts of examples of
matching text and will most likely disregard them.
The course examiner may be more concerned about other similarities, such as information,
quotes or text from other sources which have been included in assignments without being
enclosed in quotation marks or properly cited.
Although Turnitin can be used as a plagiarism-detection tool, it can also be a helpful and
effective means of improving academic writing skills. The Originality Reports can be useful
for identifying papers that include excessive use of direct quotes and paraphrases. They can
also guide students in correct citation practices, highlight potential need for greater originality
in student work and help students to understand intellectual authenticity and honesty.
In any event, students should ensure that their assignments are their own work and that any
ideas, information or quotes taken from other sources have been correctly formatted and
referenced.
Please note: It is your responsibility to ensure that you have properly cited and referenced
material and not copied from others.
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As Law students, you are conscious of the serious repercussions for you if the University
makes a determination of misconduct against you, including any determination for plagiarism
or cheating. You should be aware that it has potential to prevent or hinder a legal
practitioner’s admission and that, in Queensland, the Court of Appeal has insisted that the
question of an applicant’s record of misconduct be dealt with in open court (before hundreds
of people) at the ceremonial sittings for admission.
Disappointingly, plagiarism and cheating have been detected in this School and
determinations of misconduct have been made against students. Please, for your own sake,
just don’t do it.
5 Assignment Extensions, Deferred Assessment and Late Submissions
As noted above, assignments must be submitted by 11.59 pm UniSQ Time (as indicated on
the course website) on the due date for submission or an approved extension date. If an
assignment is submitted after the due date or an approved extension date, the course examiner
may apply the penalty applicable to late submissions in accordance with the information
provided below and University policies and procedures on late submissions.
(a) Applications for Extensions and Deferred Assessment
The conditions on which extensions or deferred assessment are granted are set out in the
University’s Assessment Procedure (cl 4.2.4) – please make sure that you know the
difference between an extension and a deferral. Generally, extensions will be limited to a
maximum of five (5) University business days. If you require an extension of more than five
(5) University business days, you should consider applying for a deferred assessment.
Similar procedures and considerations apply to extensions and deferred assessment, so in
either case you should follow the steps set out below.
Applications for an extension or deferral of assessment. Students who are unable to
submit assessment due to unforeseen circumstances can apply for an assessment
extension before the due date. More assessment information is provided here, including links
to the University's Assessment Procedure and related procedures and policies.
This site will also prompt you as to what you must include in the application and you may be
asked to attach supporting documents. You should make the application at any time up to the
due date for submission.
Conditions for an extension to be granted. The Faculty Assessments Team will decide
whether or not to grant a short extension (as described above) or, if the circumstances are
serious enough, grant deferred assessment. Extensions and deferrals are usually granted only
in Special Circumstances (which used to be known as Compassionate and Compelling
Circumstances). Extensions are generally limited to a maximum of five (5) University
business days.
A deferred assessment may be applied for where a period of greater than five (5) days is
required. Please look at the University’s Assessment of Special Circumstances Procedure so
that you understand what Special Circumstances are before making your application. Briefly,
they may include but are not limited to:
• Medical illness or injury of the student or of a close relative which requires hospitalisation or
exertsfunctional impacts on capacity for activities of daily living.
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• Mental health condition of the student or of a close relative that results in hospitalisation or
cognitive functional impairment.
• Bereavement of a close relative.
• An adverse experience that has impacted on the student which could include involvement in or
witnessing of a serious accident or witnessing or being victim of a serious crime or a natural
disaster affecting the student’s place of residence or acts of war or terrorism.
• Occurrences that are the result of a University error.
• Employment-related reasons, such as an employer unexpectedly increasing a student’s working
hours or an employer-directed transfer of a student to a new location or redeployment to a
different position. An extension will not be granted simply on the basis of normal work
commitments or a clash of other commitments. The conditions of assessment (including the last
day for submission) are already designed to accommodate the normal work commitments of most
working students. The assignment is distributed well in advance of the last day for submission
and you are expected to plan your activities so that the deadline is met.
• Other Compassionate and Compelling Circumstances at the discretion of the Faculty Executive
Dean, the Director (Student and Academic Support), the Director (USQ International) and the
Manager (Fees and Remissions).
Documentation. The online application to the Faculty Assessments Team must be
accompanied by appropriate supporting documentation. The kind of documentation required
is set out in the University’s Assessment of Special Circumstances Procedure (see cl 4.3).
Copy of approved extension must be attached to assignment. Students submitting an
assignment after the last day for submission but with an approved extension must attach the
Faculty’s written approval to the submitted assignment.
Course examiner and moderator are not to be approached for an extension or deferral.
In all courses offered by the School of Law and Justice (i.e. courses coded LAW or CRI or
PWE) and the School of Commerce, the academics do not have power to grant an extension,
deferred assessment or a deferred exam. You therefore should not apply to the course
examiner, moderator or Head of School for any extension or deferral in this course and you
should not ask them to support an application you have made to the Faculty Assessments
Team for an extension or deferral. The School of Law and Justice and the School of
Commerce have been exempted from the University’s Assessment Procedure to the extent
that the Assessment Procedure recognises that a course examiner may grant an extension or
deferral. If an extension or deferral is granted, the Faculty will advise the course examiner.
This process does not currently apply outside the School of Law and Justice and the School
of Commerce. If you are enrolled in courses outside the School of Law and Justice (i.e.
courses not coded LAW or CRI or PWE) or Commerce, the course examiner will normally be
the person to approach for an extension or deferral in those courses.
(b) Late Submissions
Clause 4.2.4 of the University’s Assessment Procedure provides that an assignment submitted
after the original due date or an approved extension date will be penalised.
Note: The penalty for late submission without an approved extension is a deduction of five
percent (5%) of the maximum marks available for the assignment (5% of 40 marks=2
marks) for each calendar day or part day that the assignment is late.
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A mark of zero will be recorded for assignments that are submitted (a) more than one week
after the original due date; and (b) any time after an approved extension date. There is no
scope for course examiner discretion in these cases.
6 Reconsideration of Marks
There is no automatic ‘right’ or ‘entitlement’ to a re-mark of an item of assessment by the
course examiner or any other person. All care is taken in the marking of course assessment
and the award of marks. A student’s marks based on the marking criteria will be returned
with each assessment item submitted by the student.
For the purposes of this course, once a mark is allocated to an assessment item, the only
ground on which it will be reconsidered is that the student has shown in writing that:
• the marking criteria have not been legitimately applied to that particular assessment; and
• a legitimate application of all the criteria to that assessment would lead to a higher mark.
Again, there is no right to a second marking of an assessment item. It is only in the
circumstances set out above that reconsideration of a mark will be undertaken in this course.
Also, in accordance with University policy, moderation of assessment is undertaken in
relation to all grades in the course once those grades are finalised and recommended. There
is no moderation of individual assessment, i.e. moderation is not second marking.
If you are unhappy with a mark on an assessment item, you are advised to: (1) consider the
feedback returned with the assessment; (2) consider any other feedback comments provided by
the marker or course examiner about the assessment; and (3) mark the assessment yourself
using all of the marking criteria.
You should only consider applying for reconsideration if you clearly and persuasively
articulate in a courteous/respectful manner that the marking criteria may have been applied
incorrectly to your overall disadvantage. For example, a persuasive argument would mention
the relevant criteria and suggest that they were erroneously applied by pinpointing the exact
wording in the assessment that speaks to the criteria to highlight the error. Where you have
reason to believe that, if the criteria were applied correctly, a higher mark would clearly
result (e.g. a criterion is worth 5 marks and you received 1 but you wish to argue, supporting
your proposition with evidence, that you should have been granted 4), you should email the
course examiner with:
• your marked assessment;
• the marking guide; and
• written reasons that explain how, if all of the criteria had been applied correctly, the
overallmark would have been higher.
In relation to the last point, a mere assertion that ‘criterion X was not applied properly’ is not
giving reasons.
The following reasons (or words of similar effect) are not grounds for reconsideration:
• ‘I don’t like the mark’ (an acceptable motive to seek reconsideration but not in itself a
reason);
• ‘I am two marks from the cut-off for a D and I would like a D for the course’;
• ‘I got a better mark in [another assignment]’;
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• ‘I got a better mark in [another course]’;
• ‘I put a lot of effort into this assignment’;
• ‘This is a failing mark, and I don’t like to fail/I don’t normally fail’;
• ‘I am an HD and D student’;
• ‘I worked with [another student] and s/he got [a higher mark]’ (this may be a dangerous
reason to give!);
• ‘I know [an influential person].’
In short, the only grounds justifying reconsideration are those set out at the start of this
section. Any student seeking reconsideration is recommended to limit any submissions to
stating reasonsthat establish those grounds.
7 University Policies and Procedures Regarding Academic Misconduct
Students should read UniSQ policies and procedures regarding Assessment, Academic
Integrity, Academic Misconduct, Student Code of Conduct, Student Expectations and
Responsibilities, and related Definitions to avoid actions that might contravene University
policies and practices.
The University’s policies and procedures can be found at .
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LAW2222: Public International Law
S3, 2022 Assignment marking criteria

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