(De-)Legitimizing Citizenship Deprivation

Several high courts have recently upheld citizenship deprivation’s constitutionality within a liberal constitutional order. In this draft, I challenge this conclusion by advancing two central claims. First, I show that citizenship deprivation cannot, in general, be justified as punishment or a national security measure within a liberal constitutional order. Instead, citizenship deprivation serves the governmental interest in political membership control. This, I argue, is not sufficiently compelling to be capable of legitimating a constitutional rights deprivation. Second, I challenge the courts’ unanimous view that citizenship is the kind of interest that should be subject to balancing at all.