Ettinger v Ministry of the Interior

• Jurisdiction: Polonia
• Docket Number: Case No. 15
• Date: 22 January 1932
• Court: Supreme Administrative Court (Poland)

Poland, Supreme Administrative Court.

Case No. 15

Ettinger

and

Ministry of the Interior.

Nationality — In General — Recognition of Acts of Foreign States as to Acquisition and Loss of Nationality.

Treaties — Effect of — Recognition of the Treaty of Versailles by Austria.

Sovereignty and Independence — Recognition of Acts of Foreign States and Governments — Recognition of Decisions concerning Nationality — Provisions of the Treaties of Versailles and St. Germain concerning Nationality — Recognition by Austria of the Treaty of Versailles.

The Facts.—Under Article 4 of the Treaty between the Principal Allied and Associated Powers and Poland of June 28, 1919, Poland declared to be Polish nationals, ipso facto and without the requirement of any formality, persons of German, Austrian, Hungarian or Russian nationality who were born in Polish territory of parents habitually resident there. The plaintiff contended that he was a Polish national by virtue of this article. He had acquired in 1904 the right of domicile in Vienna. On May 4, 1927, he had obtained from the competent municipal authorities in Vienna a certificate to the effect that as from July 16, 1920 (the date of the coming into force in Austria of the Treaty of St. Germain) he had lost his Austrian nationality and that as from that date he must be considered a Polish national by virtue of the Treaty. The Polish Ministry of the interior, on the other hand, refused to recognise that the plaintiff was a Polish national. It considered that he retained Austrian nationality by virtue of Article 70 of the Peace Treaty of St. Germain which provided that every person possessing rights of citizenship (pertinenza) in territory which formed part of the territories of the former Austro-Hungarian Monarchy shall acquire ipso facto, to the exclusion of Austrian nationality, the nationality of the State exercising sovereignty over the territory in question. It held that the certificate of the Vienna authorities of May 4, 1927, was contrary to the Treaty of St. Germain since the Austrian authorities were not entitled to base their decisions on the Treaty of Versailles, which Treaty had been neither signed nor promulgated by Austria. Finally, the Ministry held that “the initiative in matters of nationality in concrete cases does not lie with Austria. Consequently the case must be taken up by one of the contracting parties to the Treaty, since Article 230 of the Treaty of St. Germain provides that ‘Austria undertakes...