CYIL vol. 9 (2018)

JÁN KLUČKA CYIL 9 ȍ2018Ȏ that any Member of the Council of the League of Nations would have the right to bring to the attention of the Council any infraction or any danger of infraction of any of the obligations concerning minorities, and that the Council could take any action which it would deem proper and effective. Czechoslovakia also agreed that any differences arising from the Treaty between the Principal Allied and Associated Powers would be held to be a dispute of international character under Article 14 of the Covenant of the League of Nations, and if the other party demanded, such a dispute was to be referred to the Permanent Court of International Justice. 14 In order to properly secure the application of its obligations from the Treaty within its own legal order, Czechoslovakia undertook that the relevant provisions of the Treaty: “shall be recognized as fundamental laws and that no law, regulation or official action shall conflict or interfere with the treaty’s provisions, nor shall any law, regulation or official action prevail over them” (Article 1 of the Treaty). The question of Czechoslovak Nationality In cases of territorial changes, the question of nationality obviously would become a matter of international concern, and with respect to this issue the following question arose: what is the criterion in which the acquisition of the nationality of the new state is to be based? The Minority Treaty enshrines some such criterion although the principal genuine link is in Article 3 according to which: Czechoslovakia admits and declares to be Czechoslovak nationals ipso facto and without the requirement of any formality German, Austrian or Hungarian nationals habitually resident or possessing right of Heimatsrecht 15 as the case may be at the date of the coming into force of the present Treaty in a territory which is or may be recognized as forming part of Czechoslovakia under the Treaties with Germany, Austria and Hungary respectively, or under any Treaties which may be concluded for the purpose of completing the present settlement. 16 Nevertheless the persons obtaining Czechoslovak nationality had the right to opt for another nationality which may have been available to them provided that they were older than 18. According to Article 4 of the Treaty, Czechoslovakia admitted and declared to be Czechoslovak nationals ipso facto and without any requirement of any formality persons of German, Austrian or Hungarian nationality who were born in the territory referred to above of parents habitually residing or possessing rights of Heimatsrecht 17 as the case may be even if at the date of the coming into force of the present Treaty, they are not themselves habitual residents or did not possess the right of Heimatsrecht. In this case the concerned person could declare within two years after the coming into force of the Treaty to abandon Czecho-Slovak nationality. As a genuine link for acquiring Czechoslovak nationality Article 4 assumes the birth of children of German, Austrian, or Hungarian nationality in the territory which is or 14 It is worthy to add that according to Article 57 of the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Lay : The Czecho-Slovak State accepts and agrees to embody in a Treaty with the Principal Allied and Associated Powers such provision. 15 Indigénat, Pertinenza. 16 Also later legal writing confirms that: “The treaties of St. Germain with Austria (1919), of Trianon with Hungary (1919) and Minorities Treaties of 1919 with Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia established the possession right of Heimatsrecht (Indigénat, Pertinenza) in community within the territory of the State concerned as the principal link for the acquisition of the nationality…” UN Doc.A/CN.4/50: Report on Nationality, Including Statelessness by Manley O. Hudson, Special Rapporteur. Yearbook of the International law Commission, 1952, Vol. II, p. 9. 17 Indigénat, Pertinenza.

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