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1. What does it mean to deprive someone of their citizenship? It is to cast them out of society and exile them, the strongest expression of opprobrium available to us. But it highly racialised because it can only be used against dual citizens. freemovement.org.uk/rise-modern-ba…
2. If you have chosen to be British by naturalising then if you break the social contract it is fair enough if you have that citizenship revoked (as long as that does not make you stateless).
3. But if you were born British and are a dual citizen through chance not choice, because of the nationality laws of one of your parents, as it seems is the case with Shamima Begum, then taking away that citizenship seems to me to be wrong.
4. My own view is that treason laws would be more appropriate in a case like this. But the UK treason laws are so ancient they are unusable and need rewriting if they were to be relevant today. Last treason prosecution was 1980s and an ancillary offence.
5. Worth remembering that citizenship deprivation virtually unknown until Theresa May became Home Secretary: previous incumbents clearly felt it was inappropriate as a sanction. 
6. We looked at how citizenship deprivation law has widened over time and is now used in serious criminal offence cases as well as crimes against the state here: freemovement.org.uk/british-nation…
7. And we looked at a case where breaking the (assumed) duty of loyalty to the state was cited as reason for citizenship deprivation here: freemovement.org.uk/deprivation-of…
7. Finally, is Shamima Begum a dual national? I don’t know, it depends on the nationality laws of other countries. British nationality law automatically makes British any children born abroad to British parents, and lots of other countries do the same.
8. Ok, one more (for now!). What about her child? The legal duty at s.55 of the UK Borders Act 2009 to have regard to the need to safeguard and promote the welfare of children only strictly applies to children *in the UK* legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2009/11/…
