Revocation of Citizenship and Rule of Law: How Judicial Review Defeated Britain’s First Denaturalization Regime

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

5-2018

Journal Title

Law & History Review

ISSN

0738-2480

DOI

10.1017/S0738248018000019

Abstract

Denaturalization—the practice of legally depriving citizens of their citizenship—was once common in the United Kingdom. Between 1918 and 1960, the Home Office denaturalized hundreds of subjects. By the middle of the twentieth century this practice, while never formally banned, fell into disuse and effectively disappeared. In the first two decades of the twenty-first century, the British government has again availed itself of the power to denaturalize—today, as part of the international “War on Terror.” However, the history of denaturalization remains little studied. Drawing on hundreds of pages of previously unexamined archival material, this Article advances a novel explanation for the rise and eventual disappearance of Britain’s first denaturalization regime. It argues that a relatively unknown provision of the 1918 Nationality Act, which required that the Home Office’s orders be reviewed by an independent committee of judges, was responsible for the decline of denaturalization. Over the course of its existence, the archival record shows that this committee aggressively used its review power to limit the authority of the Home Secretary. This history offers contemporary Britain important lessons on how the government’s denaturalization power can be cabined by independent review in order to prevent abuse.

First Page

295

Last Page

354

Num Pages

61

Volume Number

36

Issue Number

2

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

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