CASE NOTE R (BEGUM) v SPECIAL IMMIGRATION APPEALS COMMISSION; R (BEGUM) v SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT; BEGUM v SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT [2021] UKSC 7, [2021] AC 765 ERIC FRIPP* TABLE OF CONTENTS I II III IV Introduction ........................................................................................................... 169 The Judgment of the Supreme Court ..................................................................... 171 Effect of the Decision ............................................................................................ 172 Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 175 I INTRODUCTION Shamima Begum (‘Ms Begum’) was born on 25 August 1999 in the United Kingdom. Her parents were Bangladeshi nationals. 1 By s 1(1)(b) of the British Nationality Act 1981 (‘BNA 1981’), read with s 33(2A) of the Immigration Act 1971, Ms Begum was a British citizen at birth, because she was born in the United Kingdom and at least one parent, her father, was ‘settled’ in the United Kingdom. 2 In 2015, aged 15, Ms Begum travelled to Syria to align herself with the socalled Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (‘ISIL’) terrorist group. She entered an Islamic marriage with a Dutch ISIL fighter, by whom she had three children. The first two died whilst she was in ISIL held territory. Ms Begum fled when ISIL was displaced from lands it had seized and, on 13 February 2019, encountered journalists in a camp in Syria controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces militia. She was aged 19 and was nine months pregnant with her third child. She gave birth soon thereafter, but her child died on 7 March 2019.3 On 19 February 2019, the Secretary of State for the Home Department (‘SSHD’) took a decision under the BNA 1981 s 40(2), by which the SSHD ‘may by order deprive a person of a citizenship status if … satisfied that deprivation is conducive to the public good’ to remove Ms Begum’s British citizenship. 4 The SSHD maintained that the BNA * 1 2 3 4 Eric Fripp is a barrister at 36 Public and Human Rights, London, and Senior Visiting Fellow in the Refugee Law Initiative, School of Advanced Study, University of London. He is General Editor of The Law and Practice of Expulsion and Exclusion from the United Kingdom (Hart 2014) and author of Nationality and Statelessness in the International Law of Refugee Status (Hart 2016). Begum v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2019] UKSIAC 163 [10]–[11] (‘SIAC Determination’). British Nationality Act 1981 (UK) s 1(1)(b) (‘BNA 1981’) read with the Immigration Act 1971 (UK) s 33(2A), which defines ‘settled’ as ‘ordinarily resident’ in the United Kingdom and possessing indefinite leave to enter/remain; SIAC Determination (n 1) [12]. SIAC Determination (n 1) [13]–[15]. BNA 1981 (n 2) s 40(2); SIAC Determination (n 1) [1].