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If You're Born in the Sky, What's Your Nationality?
- jk0 12y agoWasn't there a Conspiracy Keanu meme asking this exact same question?
- walterbell 12y agoWould existing policies cover the space station, where being "over" a country could cover many countries?
- lutusp 12y agoWell, strictly speaking, an orbiting spacecraft can be said to be over only one country at a time. So someone born in orbit could still be assumed to have been over a given country and therefore a citizen of that country -- unless the delivery takes too long. That reminds me of an old joke. The world's tallest baby was born on June 12th, 13th and 14th, 1952. :)
- ssanders82 12y agoIn my mind, whenever there's a grey area in interpreting the law, shouldn't it default to common sense, i.e. what a reasonable person would conclude? This is why we use phrases like "beyond a reasonable doubt" and the concept of a reasonable person (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reasonable_person http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reasonable_person) in law. I realize this is a fun little exercise, but any reasonable observer in the scenario described would have to conclude that the baby should be an American citizen.
- TheCoelacanth 12y agoThis article seems to incorrectly assume that if you are born in a country you will be a citizen of that country. In reality, most of the countries in the world don't grant citizenship to anyone born in their territory[1]. Outside of the Americas only a handful of countries do. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jus_soli http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jus_soli