Preliminary Programme

Wed 12 April
    08.30 - 10.30
    11.00 - 13.00
    14.00 - 16.00
    16.30 - 18.30

Thu 13 April
    08.30 - 10.30
    11.00 - 13.00
    14.00 - 16.00
    16.30 - 18.30

Fri 14 April
    08.30 - 10.30
    11.00 - 13.00
    14.00 - 16.00
    16.30 - 18.30

Sat 15 April
    08.30 - 10.30
    11.00 - 13.00
    14.00 - 16.00

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Thursday 13 April 2023 14.00 - 16.00
I-7 POL08 Regulating Transnational Landownership after Trianon
B34
Network: Politics, Citizenship, and Nations Chair: Andrei Sora
Organizer: Dietmar Müller Discussant: Gábor Egry
Antal Berkes : The Romanian-Hungarian Optants Case and Transnational Litigation Networks
The Romanian-Hungarian Optants case, far from being an isolated bilateral dispute, galvanized international lawyers throughout the interwar period. The two governments to the conflict, including Hungarian minority organisations, created litigation alliances with various partners from other European States for the sake of lobbying, the submission of petitions to the international ... (Show more)
The Romanian-Hungarian Optants case, far from being an isolated bilateral dispute, galvanized international lawyers throughout the interwar period. The two governments to the conflict, including Hungarian minority organisations, created litigation alliances with various partners from other European States for the sake of lobbying, the submission of petitions to the international bodies and the exchange of litigation strategies. Budapest and Bucharest quickly recognized the importance of diplomatic, cultural, political and legal alliances in their dispute. While Germany and Austria, minority associations and protestant churches in Western Europe pleaded for Hungary, the Little Entente and other successor states such as the Baltic states supported Romania. In their litigation strategies, they relied on the expertise, reputation, governmental influence and academic positions of numerous international lawyers from Western Europe who extensively engaged in favor of one of the parties. The paper argues that the Romanian-Hungarian Optants case served as an early model of truly transnational litigation networks that preceded the modern-day strategic litigation networks of the post-1945 period. (Show less)

Anders Blomqvist : The League of Nation between Economic Nationalizing and Minority Protection: Hungarian and Jewish Minorities in Interwar Romania
Economic nationalizing is defined as an institution of social practice of economic and political principles and processes that are influenced by and influences nationalism and national identities. Economic nationalizing is a dynamic process in which national and economic factors interplay. The social practice of economic nationalizing can be detectable either ... (Show more)
Economic nationalizing is defined as an institution of social practice of economic and political principles and processes that are influenced by and influences nationalism and national identities. Economic nationalizing is a dynamic process in which national and economic factors interplay. The social practice of economic nationalizing can be detectable either in formal and explicit ways, as in regulations or laws, or implicitly in the form of social rules. One fundamental principle of exclusive nationalism is to improve the political and economic positions of the nation in relation to – and at the expense of other – nations and minorities.
Greater Romania in the interwar period had signed the minority treaties and was therefore bound no non-discrimination policy. However, Hungarian, and Jewish minorities dominated the economy and the civil administration of the urban areas, especially in the cities near the Hungarian border. Greater Romania implemented a Romanianization of the economy and the public administration. These ambitions hit the Hungarian and Jewish minorities who felt discriminated and summoned petitions to the League of Nations. This paper will investigate the decisions made by the League of Nations and their impact for the minorities. Furthermore, it will investigate how these decisions framed and influenced further strategies of economic nationalizing by Romanian leaders. (Show less)

Marius Diaconescu : Everyone is Right, Nobody is Content. Determining Compensation of the Hungarian Optants
After the juridic settlement of the Optants Question by the Paris Agreements of April 28, 1930, the compensation of the Hungarian Optants proved to be another major difficulty. Especially controversial were questions of establishing common monetary values for a fair compensation, an endeavor that involved considerable dispute of economic professionals ... (Show more)
After the juridic settlement of the Optants Question by the Paris Agreements of April 28, 1930, the compensation of the Hungarian Optants proved to be another major difficulty. Especially controversial were questions of establishing common monetary values for a fair compensation, an endeavor that involved considerable dispute of economic professionals on a transnational level.
The Agrarian Fund took over the responsibility of Romania, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia for compensating the Optants. Mixed international tribunals have been tasked with judging Optants’ trials and calculating compensation claims. Rules were established for the calculation of the indemnity, which included the valuation of expropriated land depending on the pre-war price, an interest rate until 1931, and compensation for collateral damage. The price of land was calculated on the basis of pre-war statistics, which included average prices by region and declared income. A sophisticated calculation formula has been established for forest evaluation by a commission of specialists from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, which has been validated by a Swiss expert. (Show less)

Dietmar Müller : Professionalization in Conflict: Actors and Institutions in the Romanian-Hungarian Optants’ Question
For establishing a viable peace after the demise of multi-national empires in Europe, the League of Nations provided different conflict settlement instruments and institutions, both of political-diplomatic and juridical nature. To solve the Hungarian-Romanian Optants Question however, it took these bodies ten years to reach a compromise. The negotiators on ... (Show more)
For establishing a viable peace after the demise of multi-national empires in Europe, the League of Nations provided different conflict settlement instruments and institutions, both of political-diplomatic and juridical nature. To solve the Hungarian-Romanian Optants Question however, it took these bodies ten years to reach a compromise. The negotiators on all sides developed considerable ingenuity in matters of international law and international organizations for the settlement, which lead to the founding and engagement of international organizations, such as the Agrarian Fund in Paris and the Bank for International Settlements in Basel.
This conflicted pitted against each other two cherished principles in international law: national sovereignty and sanctity of property rights. Bucharest had to learn that the transnational security of property rights lay at the basis of a globalizing World Economy. Budapest on the other hand had to learn that principles do not turn automatically into politics but involve compromise to be upheld. The paper analyzes a case of conflict settlement which was socioeconomical and legal in nature, and which resulted in considerable innovation in international law. (Show less)



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