Occupation or Seizure: A Dispute Between Polish Lawyers as to the Legal Status of the German Conquest of Polish Territory
Occupation or Seizure: A Dispute Between Polish Lawyers as to the Legal Status of the German Conquest of Polish Territory
Author(s): Joanna LubeckaSubject(s): History of Law, International Law, Law and Transitional Justice, Studies in violence and power, WW II and following years (1940 - 1949), Fascism, Nazism and WW II, Peace and Conflict Studies
Published by: Instytut Solidarności i Męstwa im. Witolda Pileckiego
Keywords: German conquest of Polish lands; legal qualification of the German aggression against Poland; World War II;
Summary/Abstract: The eminent Polish lawyers, Profs. Ludwik Ehrlich and Antoni Peretiatkowicz, who were called upon as experts in international law in trials before the Supreme National Tribunal, concluded that the attack on Poland did not bear the hallmarks of war in a legal sense; the rule of the Reich in the Polish lands was not so much an occupation, but more an “unlawful seizure of land through violence and coercion.” This legal qualification of German aggression against Poland fundamentally changes the rights and obligations of the invader (not occupier) and the rights of “the population of a seized area.” The aim of the paper will be to present the arguments of lawyers in the discussion on the legal status of Germans as invaders and, on the other hand, citizens of the Polish state during the Second World War. Why did experts refuse to recognize the “state of occupation,” and what implications could such a legal qualification have? What arguments were used by opponents of such a construction?
Journal: Studia nad Totalitaryzmami i Wiekiem XX
- Issue Year: 2021
- Issue No: 5
- Page Range: 412-427
- Page Count: 16
- Language: English