The bourgeois transformation created the conditions subsequent to which the demand for statutory regulation of citizenship could emerge. The codification of citizenship law (Act 50 of 1879) was helped by the appearance of the principles of sovereignty and equality before the law. The development of a bourgeois state organisation striving to rid itself from the vestiges of feudalism necessarily brought along the reform of citizenship law, as one of the embodiments of state sovereignty. The citizenship law can be regarded as a lasting piece of legislation, since it remained in effect, with minor amendments, until 1948. In subsequent citizenship laws, significant changes were introduced in terms of the legal titles for obtaining and losing citizenship, as a consequence of which there was an increasing scope given to the expression of the individual's will and less opportunity for intervention by the state.