Articles
Abstract
For the last 10 years, Prince Hans Adam II of Liechtenstein has been suing Germany in various courts, including the German Federal Constitutional Court, the European Court of Human Rights and the International Court of Justice. Originally, the subject of the Prince's claim was the ownership of a painting seized, among other property belonging to the Prince's father, by Czechoslovakia in 1945. Now, the Prince is claiming reparation for the alleged German decision to treat Liechtenstein assets as ‘German’ for the purpose of war reparations. The article maintains that the real motive for the claim is an attempt to reignite an international juridical‐political debate on the merits of the 1945 Benes Decrees and of the still unsettled Sudeten claims. Such issues give rise to a wealth of international law problems of general interest. The article mainly focuses on the human rights issues which faced the European Court of Human Rights.
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