JUDGMENT No.
12.-UPPER
de ce genre sera, si l'autre
Partie le demande,, déféré à la
Cour permanente de Justice.
La décision de la Cour permanente sera sans appel et
aura la même force et valeur
qu'une décision rendue en vert u de l'article 13 du Pacte.
SILESIA (MINORITY SCHOOLS)
19
des Nations. Le Gouvernement
polonais agrée que tout différend de ce genre sera, si
l'autre Partie le demande, déféré à la Cour permanente de
Justice. La décision de la
Cour permanente sera sans
appel et aura la même force.
et valeur qu'une décision rendue en vertu de l'article 13
du Pacte.
Relying on paragraph 3 of this article, according to the
terms of which any State being a Member of the Council of
the League of Nations has the right to bring before the Court
any dispute "as to questions of law or fact arising out of
these articles" (that is to Say, the articles which in Division 1
precede Article 72 ; see Annex), the German Government has,
in its Application and in its Case, formulated the submission
the terms of which have been reproduced above.
This submission would seem to comprise three contentions
the first two of which must be taken together and are, in the
light of the discussions which have taken place before the
Council of the League of Nations, designed to obtain from
the Court a statement in accordance with the contention
formulated before the Council by the German representative,
namely, "that even a child which knows no language but
Polish must be allowed admission to the minority school",
and "that the decision as to which school the child is to attend
depends solely upon its parents' wishes, irrespective of the
language spoken by the child".
The contentions comprised in the Gernian Government's
submission appear to be as follows :
(1) Articles 74, 106 and 131 of the Geneva Convention
establish the unfettered liberty of any person to declare,
according to his own conscience and on his own persona1
responsibility, that he does or does not belong to a racial,
linguistic or religious minority, subject to no verification,
dispute, pressure or hindrance in any form whatsoever on the
part of the authorities.
(2) The above-mentioned articles also established the unfettered liberty of any person to choose the language of
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