Note 640 — Chapter III · INDIVIDUALS

The United States have, through the so-called "Bancroft Treaties," attempted to overcome conflicts arising from double nationality. The first of these treaties was concluded in 1868 with the North German Confederation, the precursor of the present German Empire, and signed on behalf of the United States by her Minister in Berlin, George Bancroft. (See Wharton, II. §§ 149 and 179, and Moore, III. §§ 391-400.) In the same and the following years treaties of the same kind were concluded with many other States, the last with Portugal in 1908. A treaty of another kind, but with the same object, was concluded between the United States and Great Britain on May 13, 1870. (See Martens, N.R.G. XX. p. 524, and Moore, III. § 397.) All these treaties stipulate that naturalisation in one of the contracting States shall be recognised by the other, whether the naturalised individual has or has not previously been released from his original citizenship, provided he has resided for five years in such country. And they further stipulate that such naturalised individuals, in case they return after naturalisation into their former home State and take their residence there for some years, either ipso facto become again subjects of their former home State and cease to be naturalised abroad (as the Bancroft Treaties), or can be reinstated in their former citizenship, and cease thereby to be naturalised abroad (as the treaty with Great Britain).