Rui Patrício signs the opinion article “Immigration, a Hint of Demagogy and Tom Hanks”

Rui Patrício signs the opinion article “Immigration, a Hint of Demagogy and Tom Hanks”, in which he analyses the proposal to introduce the loss of nationality as a criminal accessory sanction. He argues that this measure lacks a solid legal basis and constitutes a distortion of the penalty system.

In the article, he separates the relevance of the immigration debate from the specific proposal to withdraw nationality from individuals convicted of certain crimes. He argues that accessory sanctions must be directly linked to the nature of the crime and to the prevention of future conduct, which is not the case here.

The lawyer maintains that nationality should not be treated as a right conditional on the absence of criminal convictions and rejects any distinction between original and acquired nationality for this purpose. Framing nationality as a revocable legal status would undermine fundamental principles, such as proportionality, and could lead to the creation of stateless persons.

The article concludes with an analysis of the risks of legislating based on simplified public perceptions, stressing the need to uphold the coherence of the legal system, even in politically sensitive contexts.

Read the full article here.