Rights of Citizenship (Establishment of Czechoslovak Nationality) Case [Czechoslovakia, Supreme Administrative Court.]

• Jurisdiction: Republica Checa
• Date: 15 December 1921
• Docket Number: Case No. 6
• Court: Obsolete Court (Czechoslovakia)

Czechoslovakia, Supreme Administrative Court.

Case No. 6

Rights of Citizenship (Establishment of Czechoslovak Nationality) Case.

Establishment of New State — Coming into Existence of the Czechoslovak State — Establishment of Nationality therein — Effect of the Treaties of Peace — Recognition — Establishment of Czechoslovak Territorial Sovereignty in Bohemia.

The Facts.—The plaintiffs, citizens of the town of Vienna, applied for rights of citizenship (Heimatrecht) in the town of Liberec (Reichenberg, Bohemia), which were accorded to them on 9 April, 1919. Subsequently, however, this acquisition of the rights of citizenship was quashed by the Ministry of the Interior on the ground that the plaintiffs, being foreigners, could not acquire rights of citizenship in a Czechoslovak commune.1

Held by the Supreme Administrative Court: That the appeal lodged against the decision of the Ministry of the Interior must be dismissed:

(a) According to the provisions of paragraph 2 of the Law of 3 December, 1863, No. 105 (formerly Austrian and now Czechoslovak), as to rights of citizenship, only the subjects of the State can acquire rights of citizenship (Heimatrecht) in a commune, but, on the other hand, every subject of the State must have this right in a commune. This connection between rights of citizenship and nationality, declared by paragraph 2 of the Law, led to the establishment under the old régime of the doctrine that in the event of the cession by Austria of a part of her territory all Austrian subjects who possessed rights of citizenship in the ceded territory lost their Austrian nationality, and inversely, when an addition was made to Austrian territory, those who had rights of citizenship in the new territory acquired Austrian nationality. By Law No. 11 of 28 October, 1918,2 the present territory of the Czechoslovak Republic was separated from the territory of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. At that time all laws of the former Monarchy ceased to be in force for the territory of the Republic; the former legal system ceased to exist. In order, however, to avoid a serious gap in public and private life, it was necessary to introduce, by a special constitutional act, a new legal system. This was done by Law No. 11 of 28 October, 1918. By this Law the new State introduced its own new legal system by means of the provisional adoption of the Austrian legal system existing hitherto (Article 2 of Law No. 11/1918). As the result of this adoption, all provisions of the...