Citizenship Revocation as Punishment

This chapter examines whether citizenship revocation can coherently be classified as a non-penal administrative measure under European human rights law. Focusing on the case law of the European Court of Human Rights, it argues that this prevailing legal framing obscures the punitive nature of citizenship revocation. While often treated as a mere formal consequence of disloyalty to the state, the chapter shows that the real severity of European practice of citizenship revocation lies in its concrete effects: the loss not only of formal membership, but also of territorial access and the rights protection attached to citizenship in a European state. Because citizenship is the primary determinant of the level of rights protection a person enjoys, revoking it entails far more than the loss of formal membership, identity, and the right to reside in a given territory. It de facto also means the loss of access to the fundamental rights guaranteed within that jurisdiction. On that basis, the chapter contends that citizenship revocation cannot, in terms of both nature and severity, be understood as anything other than a form of punishment.