TRIESTE – The Italian state is not required to further compensate the Julian and Dalmatian exiles who lost their property in the territories ceded to Yugoslavia under the 1947 Peace Treaty, expropriated or nationalized by the Yugoslav government. This was emphasized by the Supreme Court of Cassation (Joint Sections ). The Court was called upon to rule on the appeal filed by several exiles, and their heirs, who had sued the Prime Minister's Office and the Ministry of Economy, deeming the sums paid to them as compensation belated (they were established only with the 1975 Treaty of Osimo, which came into force in the 80s) and "derisory."

Relying on a fairly recent precedent, a 2004 ruling by the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights on compensation from Poland following the agreements reached with the Soviet Republics, the plaintiffs took the State to court in Trieste, seeking a ruling on their right to compensation for the consequences of the post-World War II peace agreement. They lost both at first instance and on appeal. Now the Court of Cassation ( ruling 8055, hearing on March 25 ) emphasizes that there is indeed "a subjective right of the party against the public administration," but this "does not limit the legislator's choices in determining the amount of compensation," which is an intervention "inspired by criteria of solidarity of the national community," and not by "an obligation of a compensatory nature for an unlawful act, not attributable to the Italian State."

It was then Yugoslavia, with its policy of nationalization, that also expropriated the property of Italian citizens. Therefore, the Italian state "is not the perpetrator of the violation," "since the deprivation of the property of Italian citizens was carried out by a foreign state, to which the territory on which they were located was ceded by Italy, the defeated country in the war." And in this—the Joint Sections observed—the case differs from that judged by the European Court, which concerns an agreement between two states that emerged victorious from the conflict, regarding Poland's eastern border and agreements with Ukraine, Belarus, and Lithuania, "with the Polish state assuming a specific obligation to compensate its citizens."

«The Gazzettino», 07/04/14

The Adriatic Observer