The French Cour de cassation clarifies the situation of minors regarding the loss of French nationality by disuse
Un passeport français. Richard Villalon / BELPRESS/MAXPPP
By two judgments dated November 27, 20241, the First Civil Chamber of the Cour de cassation (première chambre civile) clarified the situation of the persons seeking judicial recognition of their French nationality vis-à-vis the loss of French nationality by disuse under Article 30-3 of the French Civil Code, when they are minor at the time of the introduction of the proceeding.
In both cases, the applicants were under 18 when they summoned (through their legal representative) the public prosecutor in order to have their French nationality recognized by the Tribunal judiciaire having jurisdiction. And in both cases, this recognition was refused to them, in the first place as well as on appeal, due to the fact that they had supposedly lost French nationality by disuse pursuant to article 30-3 of the French civil code.
As a reminder, Article 30-3 in question provides that the proof of the French nationality of an individual is made impossible when she/he and her/his French ascendant(s) have lived outside France for more than 50 years, if at the same time she/he and her/his French father or mother have had no French possession d’état, i.e. no French document (passport, national card, etc.).
On the occasion of these two proceedings, the Cour de cassation overturned the appeal judgments by combining (and thus confirming) two principles already proclaimed in the past.
According to the first, the Court must be placed at the date of the introduction of the proceeding for the assessment of the conditions laid down by article 30-3 of the civil code2.
Pursuant to the second, proclaimed by a decision of the Cour de cassation dated June 29, 2022, article 30-3 of the civil code may only be invoked against a minor child of a French person, if it is also opposed to the latter. The minor child indeed follows the condition of her/his French parent3.
In application of these two principles, when an applicant is a minor at the time of the filing of the action déclaratoire de nationalité française, Article 30-3 of the civil code cannot in any way be opposed to her/him if it is not previously opposed to her/his French parent.