Editing Passport (section)

=== Modern development ===
A rapid expansion of [[Rail transport|railway infrastructure]] and wealth in Europe beginning in the mid-nineteenth century led to large increases in the volume of international travel and a consequent unique dilution of the passport system for approximately thirty years prior to [[World War I]]. The speed of trains, as well as the number of passengers that crossed multiple borders, made enforcement of passport laws difficult. The general reaction was the relaxation of passport requirements.<ref name="PASSCanada">{{cite web | title= History of Passports |work= Government of Canada|date= 10 April 2014|url= https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/canadians/celebrate-being-canadian/teachers-corner/history-passports.html | access-date=April 7, 2018}}</ref> In the later part of the nineteenth century and up to World War I, passports were not required, on the whole, for travel within Europe, and crossing a border was a relatively straightforward procedure.  Consequently, comparatively few people held passports.

During World War I, European governments introduced border passport requirements for security reasons, and to control the emigration of people with useful skills. These controls remained in place after the war, becoming a standard, though controversial, procedure. British tourists of the 1920s complained, especially about attached photographs and physical descriptions, which they considered led to a "nasty dehumanisation".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Marrus |first=Michael Robert |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/12344863 |title=The unwanted : European refugees in the twentieth century |date=1985 |publisher=Oxford University Press |others=Mazal Holocaust Collection |isbn=0-19-503615-8 |location=New York |pages=95 |oclc=12344863}}</ref> The [[History of British nationality law#British Nationality and Status of Aliens Act 1914|British Nationality and Status of Aliens Act]] was passed in 1914, clearly defining the notions of [[citizenship]] and creating a booklet form of the passport.

In 1920, the [[League of Nations]] held a conference on passports, the [[Paris Conference on Passports & Customs Formalities and Through Tickets]].<ref>{{cite web | url= http://www.indiana.edu/~league/1920.htm | title= League of Nations Photo Archive – Timeline – 1920 | publisher= Indiana University | access-date= July 13, 2013 | archive-date= April 2, 2020 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20200402162934/http://www.indiana.edu/~league/1920.htm | url-status= dead }}</ref> Passport guidelines and a general booklet design resulted from the conference,<ref>{{Cite book | publisher = League of Nations Secretariat, Information Section | url = https://bl-libg-doghill.ads.iu.edu/league-web/book/p63.html | chapter = League of Nations 'International' or 'Standard' passport design |title =Illustrated album of the League of Nations|date=1926 | place = Geneva | page=63| access-date = 2010-06-27 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110719215005/https://bl-libg-doghill.ads.iu.edu/league-web/book/p63.html | archive-date = 2011-07-19 | url-status = dead }}</ref> which was followed up by conferences in 1926 and 1927.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.indiana.edu/~league/conferencedata.htm|title=International Conferences – League of Nations Archives|year=2002|publisher=Center for the Study of Global Change|access-date=2009-08-05}}</ref> The [[League of Nations]] issued [[Nansen passport]]s to [[Stateless person|stateless]] [[refugees]] from 1922 to 1938.<ref>{{cite web|last=Giaimo|first=Cara|date=2017-02-07|title=The Little-Known Passport That Protected 450,000 Refugees|url=http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/nansen-passport-refugees|access-date=2022-01-30|website=Atlas Obscura|language=en}}</ref>

While the United Nations held a travel conference in 1963, no passport guidelines resulted from it. Passport standardization came about in 1980, under the auspices of the [[International Civil Aviation Organization|ICAO]]. ICAO standards include those for [[machine-readable passport]]s.<ref name="ICAO MRTD">{{cite web |title=Welcome to the ICAO Machine Readable Travel Documents Programme |url=http://www.icao.int/Security/mrtd/Pages/default.aspx |publisher=ICAO |access-date=2012-09-06}}</ref> Such passports have an area where some of the information otherwise written in textual form is written as strings of alphanumeric characters, printed in a manner suitable for [[optical character recognition]]. This enables border controllers and other law enforcement agents to process these passports more quickly, without having to input the information manually into a computer. ICAO publishes Doc 9303 ''Machine Readable Travel Documents'', the technical standard for machine-readable passports.<ref name="ICAO 2006">{{cite book |publisher=ICAO |title=Machine Readable Travel Documents, Doc 9303 |year=2006 |edition=Sixth |url=http://www.icao.int/Security/mrtd/Pages/Document9303.aspx |access-date=2013-08-09}}</ref> A more recent standard is for [[biometric passport]]s. These contain [[biometrics]] to authenticate the identity of travellers. The passport's critical information is stored on a small [[RFID]] computer chip, much like information stored on [[smartcard]]s. Like some smartcards, the passport booklet design calls for an embedded contactless chip that is able to hold [[digital signature]] data to ensure the integrity of the passport and the biometric data.

Historically, legal authority to issue passports is founded on the exercise of each country's executive discretion. Certain legal tenets follow, namely: first, passports are issued in the name of the state; second, no person has a legal right to be issued a passport; third, each country's government, in exercising its executive discretion, has complete and unfettered discretion to refuse to issue or to revoke a passport; and fourth, that the latter discretion is not subject to judicial review.  However, legal scholars including A.J. Arkelian have argued that evolutions in both the constitutional law of democratic countries and the international law applicable to all countries now render those historical tenets both obsolete and unlawful.<ref>Arkelian, A.J.  "The Right to a Passport in Canadian Law."  ''The Canadian Yearbook of International Law'', Volume XXI, 1983.  Republished in November 2012 in Artsforum Magazine at http://artsforum.ca/ideas/in-depth {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131202033527/http://artsforum.ca/ideas/in-depth |date=2013-12-02 }}</ref><ref>Arkelian, A.J. "Freedom of Movement of Persons Between States and Entitlement to Passports".  ''Saskatchewan Law Review'', Volume 49, No. 1, 1984–85.</ref>

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File:Arabic papyrus with an exit permit, dated January 24, 722 CE, pointing to the regulation of travel activities. From Hermopolis Magna, Egypt.jpg|Arabic papyrus with an exit permit, dated January 24, 722 AD, pointing to the regulation of travel activities. From Hermopolis Magna, Egypt
File:First Japanese passport 1866.jpg|First [[Japanese passport]], issued in 1866
File:Italian passport 1872.jpg|Italian passport, issued in 1872
File:QingPassport.jpg|Chinese passport from the [[Qing dynasty]], 24th Year of the Guangxu Reign, 1898
File:Ottoman-russian-empire-passport.jpg|An [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] passport (passavant) issued to a [[Russian Empire|Russian]] subject dated July 24, 1900
File:WW2 Spanish official passport.jpg|[[World War II]] Spanish official passport issued in late 1944 and used during the last six months of the war by an official being sent to [[Berlin]]
</gallery>