Denization is an obsolete process in English
Common LawCommon law is law developed by judges through decisions of courts and similar tribunals , rather than through legislative statutes or executive action, and to corresponding legal systems that rely on precedential case law....
, dating from the 13th century, by which a foreigner became a
denizen, gaining some privileges of a
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
subject, including the right to hold English land, through
letters patentLetters patent are a type of legal instrument in the form of an open letter issued by a monarch or government, granting an office, right, monopoly, title, or status to a person or to some entity such as a corporation. The opposite of letters patent are letters close , which are personal in nature...
. Denization fell into disuse when statutory mechanisms for naturalisation developed.
Denization occurred by a grant of
letters patentLetters patent are a type of legal instrument in the form of an open letter issued by a monarch or government, granting an office, right, monopoly, title, or status to a person or to some entity such as a corporation. The opposite of letters patent are letters close , which are personal in nature...
, an exercise of the royal prerogative.
Denization is an obsolete process in English
Common LawCommon law is law developed by judges through decisions of courts and similar tribunals , rather than through legislative statutes or executive action, and to corresponding legal systems that rely on precedential case law....
, dating from the 13th century, by which a foreigner became a
denizen, gaining some privileges of a
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
subject, including the right to hold English land, through
letters patentLetters patent are a type of legal instrument in the form of an open letter issued by a monarch or government, granting an office, right, monopoly, title, or status to a person or to some entity such as a corporation. The opposite of letters patent are letters close , which are personal in nature...
. Denization fell into disuse when statutory mechanisms for naturalisation developed.
Denization at English Common Law
Denization occurred by a grant of
letters patentLetters patent are a type of legal instrument in the form of an open letter issued by a monarch or government, granting an office, right, monopoly, title, or status to a person or to some entity such as a corporation. The opposite of letters patent are letters close , which are personal in nature...
, an exercise of the royal prerogative. Denizens paid a fee and took an oath of allegiance to the crown.
The denizen was not a citizen nor an alien: but had a status akin to
permanent residencyPermanent residency refers to a person's visa status: the person is allowed to reside indefinitely within a country despite not having citizenship. A person with such status is known as a permanent resident....
today; it has also been compared to the Roman
civitas sine suffragioCivitas sine suffragio was a level of citizenship in the Roman Republic which granted all the rights of Roman citizenship except the right to vote in popular assemblies. This status was first extended to some of the city-states which had been incorporated into the Republic following the break-up...
, although the rights of denizens were restricted by the
Act of Settlement 1701The Act of Settlement is an act of the Parliament of England, originally filed in 1700, and passed in 1701, to settle the succession to the English throne on the Electress Sophia of Hanover—a granddaughter of James I—and her Protestant heirs...
, not by common or immemorial law. Sir William Blackstone noted:
- "A denizen is a kind of middle state, between an alien and a natural-born subject, and partakes of both." – (Blackstone: Commentaries, Book 1, Chapter X, p374)
The denizen was not a citizen because he did not have any political rights: he could not be a member of parliament or hold any civil or military office. However, the status of denizen allowed a foreigner to purchase property, although a denizen could not inherit property. Historically, paying for
letters patentLetters patent are a type of legal instrument in the form of an open letter issued by a monarch or government, granting an office, right, monopoly, title, or status to a person or to some entity such as a corporation. The opposite of letters patent are letters close , which are personal in nature...
was thus a requirement of foreign land ownership in England.
Denization was expressly preserved by the Naturalisation Act of 1870 and by s25 of the British Nationality and Status of Aliens Act 1914 . (See Early British Nationality Law.) According to the British Home Office, the last denization was granted to the Dutch painter
Lawrence Alma-TademaSir Lawrence Alma-Tadema , OM, RA was one of the most renowned painters of late nineteenth-century Britain....
in 1873; the Home Office considered it obsolete when the Prince of Pless applied for it in 1933, and instructed him to apply for naturalization instead. The British Nationality Act 1948, a major reform of citizenship law in Britain, made no mention of denization and neither abolished nor preserved the practice.
Denization, as an exercise of royal power, was applicable throughout the British dominion to all British subjects. That is, it was exercisable in the colonies. For example, denization occurred in the colony of New South Wales. As in England, the practice became obsolete to naturalisation, with the last known denization in 1848.