Research and book on "Exceptional Measures, Etat d'Exception and the Democratic State: Comparative Twentieth-Century Denaturalization Policies

 Despite their growing use in the fight against terrorism, denaturalization and withdrawal of citizenship remain understudied topics. Patrick Weil of the Sorbonne and Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), one of the leading European scholars of immigration, will study the history of denaturalization from the early twentieth to the early twenty-first century. Weil will compare the legislation and its applications and consequences in the United States, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom.

The aim of the study is to explore the similarities and differences in denaturalization in democracies versus authoritarian regimes and challenge the claim that the difference between the two types of regimes is one of degree. Weil will use examples of American, British, German, and French denaturalization histories, including two periods of dictatorship—Nazi Germany and Vichy France—to show that democratic and authoritarian denaturalization do in fact differ in substance. While in democracies denaturalization is limited by law to specific situations or crimes, there is no such limitation in authoritarian regimes. Democratic denaturalization is also limited by external control to governmental action—such as the judicial control of the executive—while authoritarian denaturalization allows full discretionary power of the executive. Under authoritarian rule, denaturalization activities tend to go to the limit of the law; in democracies, they are characterized by a self-restriction of the executive’s actions.

Using data from the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Justice Department, and the State Department archives in the United States; the Ministries of Justice and Foreign Affairs and the administrative Supreme Court archives in France; the Home Office archives in the United Kingdom; and assorted archives in Germany, Weil will tally the number of denaturalization cases per year in each country and the comparative counts for different subcategories of denaturalization (e.g., for moral reasons, for army desertion, etc.). Research conducted thus far has unearthed periods of heavy use of denaturalization, such as the spike in France between 1947 and 1951. Qualitative data including correspondence on denaturalization and individual case files of denaturalized individuals will be analyzed to examine the politics behind these decisions and the characteristics of the denaturalized population. A comparison of data from different countries will highlight or refute any potential cross-country influence on the development of denaturalization policies.