Nationality Decrees Issued in Tunis and Morocco

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Nationality Decrees Issued in Tunis and Morocco is the name of an opinion issued by the Permanent International Court of Justice on February 7, 1923.

facts

The report was based on a dispute between France and Great Britain about the effectiveness of decrees regulating the acquisition of citizenship in Tunis and Morocco , which were then controlled by France, also for British citizens. France refused to initiate a dispute settlement procedure on the grounds that the question of acquiring nationality was an internal matter and therefore not amenable to proceedings before the Council under Article 15 (8) of the statutes . The Council referred this question to the General Court for assessment.

The decision

In its decision, the Court dealt solely with the question of whether the dispute was of an international law nature or not. A substantive decision should expressly not be made. The judges first compared the wording of the English and French versions of Article 15 (8) and determined that a decision depends on whether France has sole jurisdiction. With regard to questions of nationality, it should first be assumed that they fell under the sole jurisdiction of one state. This principle could, however, be repealed by a state undertaking under international law to other states. These obligations are then to be regarded as obligations under international law - in relation to this very state. With regard to the question to be decided, it depends on how the control of Tunis and Morocco is contractually structured.

In this regard, the representatives of Great Britain claimed that after the protectorate treaties concluded with Tunis and Morocco in 1856 and 1875, the acquisition of another nationality was excluded. On the other hand, France argued that, under the Clausula-rebus-sic-stantibus principle, these treaties had lost their effectiveness as France had taken control of both territories, creating a new situation for it to deal with citizenship issues in those territories alone is responsible. The representatives of France also asserted that the British government had recognized France's claim to power over Tunis in an agreement of 1897 and, in 1911, also over Morocco.

The Tribunal did not follow suit. He argued that what matters here is the extent to which effective international treaties on the two protectorates have been concluded between the two states. However, this is not a purely internal matter within the meaning of Article 15, Paragraph 8 of the League of Nations.

source

  1. ↑ Decision on p. 22

See also

further reading

  • Gregory: An Important Decision by the Permanent Court of International Justice . In: American Journal of International Law Vol. 17 (1923) ISSN  0002-9300 , p. 298.
  • Berman: The Nationality Decrees Case, or, Of ​​Intimacy and Consent . In: Leiden Journal of International Law Vol. 13 (2000) ISSN  1478-9698 , p. 265