I have been reading up on Spanish nationality law recently, and I have a few questions regarding how it works for a specific case.
Imagine someone were to be born in Spain to a Spanish parent and a British parent. In this scenario, the baby would be both Spanish and British by origin.
Now the parents of the baby apply for both a Spanish and British passport for the baby, so the baby is now a registered national of both countries (actually, the baby would have had to have been registered in Spain prior to obtaining the Spanish passport).
My understanding of the law is that this is all fine and dandy until the child reaches the "age of emancipation" (i.e. 18 years old), when different rules start to apply.
If the adult now voluntarily obtains another nationality (and lives outside of Spain), they will lose their Spanish nationality if they do not inform the Spanish authorities within 3 years of their intention to remain Spanish.
The adult would also lose their nationality if they started to solely use their other nationality (in this case British).
There are also other ways the person could lose their Spanish nationality, but none of these could result in involuntary loss of it.
So, my questions are as follows:
1) Is my understanding of the law correct?
2) How would the Spanish government know that a person is now no longer "using" their Spanish nationality?
2a) Is the burden of proof on the state or the individual to prove this?
3) In practice, does the Spanish government ever "strip" dual nationals of their Spanish citizenship, or is this just an antique law that is there but never actually applied?
4) Does the child have to inform "the authorities" that they have British citizenship within 3 years of reaching "emancipation"?
My main sources of information are:
1) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_nationality_law
2) http://noticias.juridicas.com/base_datos/Privado/cc.l1t1.html