The decline and limited revival of citizenship deprivation: Germany and Switzerland as deviant cases?

Abstract

ABSTRACT A common argument in the literature on loss of citizenship has been that after 1945 most if not all countries liberalised their laws on loss of citizenship until the beginning of a countermovement in 2001. This article focuses on Germany and Switzerland which do not fit this pattern and where after the early 1950s laws on loss of citizenship became less liberal, although not dramatically so. This distinctive German and Swiss pattern can be explained in part by distinctive historical starting points. Late in the nineteenth century, Switzerland started out with very broad protections against loss of citizenship, and after 1945 Germany adopted much more extensive protections against loss of citizenship than before. Subsequent legal changes represent a regression toward the mean. Loss of citizenship is also closely related to laws on dual citizenship. Although both countries today tolerate dual citizenship to varying degrees, laws on loss of citizenship are still used to contain the spread of dual citizenship although neither country engages in futile attempts to eliminate dual citizenship. Court decisions and party politics also played a role but neither can explain the overall trajectory of German or Swiss laws on loss of citizenship.