The paper deals with the legal regulation of state citizenship in both the unitary and federal Czechoslovakia and the sovereign Czech Republic. It shows not only the constitutional and statutory regulation of state citizenship, but also its close relationship with the political development.
Some partial institutions of state citizenship are identical with those applicable 100 years ago; however, most features have changed: (a) there is another state, (b) the partially private institution of citizenship has been transferred to the regulation of public law, (c) the constitutional regulation has been reduced, but the statutory regulation has expanded, (d) bipolitism has been tolerated, (e) international regulation is expressed only in multilateral agreements, and (f) citizenship of the Czech Republic is part of the EU citizenship. Simultaneous regulation of the Czechoslovak and Czech citizenship between 1969 and 1992 represents a continuing transfer from the Czechoslovak state citizenship to the citizenship of the Czech Republic.