Supreme Court dismisses appeal regarding deprivation of British nationality

The appellant was born in Vietnam in 1989 and came to the UK, acquiring British citizenship at the age of 12. When he was 21 he converted to Islam and allegedly became an Islamic extremist. The Supreme Court unanimously dismissed an appeal regarding the respondent’s order to deprive the appellant of British Nationality on the grounds that it would be conducive to the public good under the British Nationality Act 1981, s 40(2). The central issue for the Court to consider was whether the respondent was precluded from making the order because to do so would render the appellant stateless. The appellant argued that he would be stateless because he had lost his Vietnamese citizenship.  At a preliminary hearing SIAC allowed the appeal on the basis that the appellant would not have been considered to be a Vietnamese national by the Vietnamese executives on 22 Dec 2011. The Court of Appeal allowed the Secretary of State’s appeal of this decision and held that the appellant was a Vietnamese national on the relevant date under the text of Vietnamese laws. Hugh Southey QC was involved in this case.