What is wrong with denationalization: Citizenship revocation and social equality

Abstract

In recent years, states have expanded their formal legal powers to strip their subjects of citizenship. But should states have the power to revoke citizenship? If so, how may this power be permissibly exercised, and how ought it to be constrained? This article argues that some standard critiques of denationalization face some important limitations. These limitations stem from the fact that these critiques fail to identify the distinctiveness of citizenship as a status, and, thus, fail to identify an objection that is directly connected with citizenship loss. To supplement these critiques, I offer a framework for understanding the value of citizenship, which draws attention to the egalitarian functions of citizenship. This yields a novel interpretation and defense of the charge that denationalization is problematically inegalitarian: viz., denationalization threatens to impair the egalitarian functions of citizenship.