Constitutional Court defends controversial ruling

Santo Domingo.- The Constitutional Court denied Thursday that its September 23 ruling has denationalized the descendants of Haitians parents in transit and violated the principle of non-retroactivity of the law, because "they were never was Dominican by jus soli" (birthright by soil).

In a statement, Constitutional Court Chief justice Milton Ray Guevara denied that Juliana Dequis Pierre has been made stateless, as she affirms.

He said since 1929, all Dominican constitutions, for nearly a century, excluded jus solis as the right to nationality to foreigners in transit, who after having exceeded their stay are considered non-residents.

"In that regard, there is no retroactivity in a ruling which determines that the law in effect at the time in which the claimed right emerges. Therefore, if the claimant was born in the country, since 1966, offspring of foreigners in transit, has simply never been Dominican by jus soli."