template<int x> struct A { template<int y> struct B {};. template<int y, int unused> struct C {}; }; template<int x> template<> struct A<x>::B<x> {}; // error: enclosing class templates are not explicitly specialized template<int x> template<int unused> struct A<x>::C<x, unused> {}; // ok So why is the explicit specialization of a inner, nested class (or function) not allowed, if the outer class isn't specialiced too? Strange enough, I can work around this behaviour if I only partially specialize the inner class with simply adding a dummy template parameter. Makes things uglier and more complex, but it works. Note: I need this feature for recursive templates of the inner class for a set of the outer class. To make things even more complicate, in reality I only need a template function instead of the inner class. But partial specialization of functions is generally disallowed somewhere else in the standard ^^