164 Mantu the meaning of the duty of loyalty associated with the notion of citizenship was questioned as a result of the engagement of the UK government in the fight against terrorism in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Simul­ taneously, UK citizenship was increasingly presented as a privilege that needed to be earned by newly naturalized citizens and British citizens by birth, alike.2 The new citizenship deprivation powers target citizens who are considered to have breached their duty of loyalty by engaging in behaviours labelled by the executive as not conducive to the public good, and generally related to terrorism and national security. Statelessness has come to play an important part in the process of getting rid of ‘bad’ citizens since it operates as the outer limit of the government’s capacity to transform citizens into foreigners. 2 The Legal Framework of Citizenship Deprivation in the UK The overhaul of the British rules on nationality started with the adoption of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 20023 that amended Section 40 of the British Nationality Act 1981 and made citizenship deprivation applicable also to British citizens by birth.4 Section 40(2) expanded the powers of the Secretary of State to deprive someone of citizenship if he was ‘satisfied that the person has done anything seriously prejudicial to the vital interests of the United Kingdom or a British Overseas territory.’ Section 40(4) restricts this power to cases where the person would not become stateless as a result of loss of British citizenship, suggesting that the measure is applicable only in respect The 21 Britons stripped of their citizenship’ (The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, 26 February 2013) <http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2013/02/26/medieval-exile-the -21-britons-stripped-of-their-citizenship> accessed 20 October 2013. 2 D. Kiwan, ‘A Journey to Citizenship in the United Kingdom’ (2008) 10 International Journal on Multicultural Societies 60; H. Majid, ‘Protecting the Right to Have Rights: The Case of Section 56 of the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006’ (2008) 22 Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Law 27; M. Everson, ‘Subjects’ or ‘Citizens of Erewhon’? Law and Non-Law in the Development of a ‘British Citizenship’ (2003) 7 Citizenship Studies 57. 3 The Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 [United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland], 2002 Chapter 41, 7 November 2002 (referred to as ‘the 2002 Act’). The Act brought amendments to the British Nationality Act 1981, but did not repeal it. 4 Until 2002, registered or naturalized British citizens could have their citizenship withdrawn by an act of the executive on the following grounds: (1) if citizenship had been obtained by fraud, misrepresentation or concealment of a material fact; (2) were disloyal to the Queen; (3) had assisted the enemy in time of war; (4) in the past five years, had been sentenced to at least twelve months imprisonment in any country. tilburg law review 19 (2014) 163-170