Gil v Ministry of Industry and Commerce

• Jurisdiction: Polonia
• Docket Number: Case No. 41
• Date: 06 June 1923
• Court: Supreme Administrative Court (Poland)

Poland, Supreme Administrative Court.

Case No. 41

Gil

and

Polish Ministry of Industry and Commerce.

State Succession — International Convention — Parties to Treaties — Poland as Successor to Austria in Treaties between Austria-Hungary and Russia.

The Facts.—The plaintiff, a Russian subject, applied to the Polish authorities for the necessary documents to enable him to carry on at Lwów (Lemberg, in the part of Poland formerly belonging to Austria) trade in textile goods. The law in force in such cases demands from aliens proof of reciprocity, subject of course to special provisions of international treaties. The plaintiff contended that the Treaty of Commerce of 1906 between Austria-Hungary and the Russian Empire continued in force between the Republic of Poland and the Soviet Union, as regards such parts of Polish territory as had been under Russian sovereignty, and that consequently the reciprocity formerly assumed in the Treaty between Austria-Hungary and Russia relieved the plaintiff of the necessity of proving reciprocity.1

Held: That the action must be dismissed. International

treaties, being based on the mutual consent of the contracting parties, are not binding on a State for the sole reason that part of its territory formerly...