21.
person who made it will after the registration have or acquire some citizenship or nationality other than British citizenship; and if that person does not have any such citizenship or nationality on the date of registration and does not acquire some such citizenship or nationality within six months from that date, he shall be, and be deemed to have remained, a British citizen notwithstanding the registration.
(4) The Secretary of State may withhold registration of any declaration made in pursuance of this section if it is made during any war in which Her Majesty may be engaged in right of Her Majesty's government in the United Kingdom.
(5) For the purposes of this section any person who has been married, or has formed a civil partnership, shall be deemed to be of full age."
63 Senator Gallagher submitted that s 12 should operate, but that the constitutional imperative meant that no operation should be given to s 12(2) because that sub-section involves the action of a foreign official.
64 That submission should not be accepted. Although the constitutional implication is not confined to foreign laws that make participation in representative government impossible, the further one departs from a situation of impossibility, and the broader the operation given to "unreasonable obstacles" to renunciation, the more vague and uncertain becomes the implication and the more unpredictable becomes its operation. In turn, this undermines the implication itself. Senator Gallagher's submission, if accepted, would even treat as an unreasonable obstacle to renunciation a law that had the potential to allow efficient renunciation for some and extremely efficient renunciation for others.
65 Although a foreign law should not be automatically excluded by the implication whenever any action of a foreign official is involved, some circumstances involving actions of foreign officials might still immediately engage the constitutional imperative. An example where this arguably might occur, to adapt from one given in oral submissions by the Attorney-General of the Commonwealth, is where the actions required for renunciation under the foreign law are: (i) submission of a form; (ii) payment of a fee; and (iii) certification by a foreign official that military service for the country has been served, in circumstances in which the country is, and has been, engaged in active combat with another state.
66 If the constitutional imperative were engaged in the example above, there would be a further issue. The further issue concerns the steps that a person must take to renounce if a foreign law imposes unreasonable requirements. On one view, akin to the approach that Senator Gallagher submitted should apply to
