Nottebohm Case (Liechtenstein v. Guatemala) Case Brief Summary | Law Case Explained

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Nottebohm Case (Liechtenstein v. Guatemala) | 1955 I.C.J. 4 (1955)

The United States-Latin American Detention Program was created in nineteen forty-one to capture Nazi sympathizers, but ended up netting numerous individuals who presented little or no national security risk. One of these was the wealthy businessman at the heart of the Nottebohm Case.

Friedrich Nottebohm was born in Hamburg, Germany, in eighteen eighty-one. Two of his many brothers lived in Guatemala, where they operated Nottebohm Hermanos, a firm engaged in banking, finance, and coffee plantations. Nottebohm joined them in nineteen oh five and spent the next three decades working and living in Guatemala. In nineteen thirty-seven he became head of the family firm.

Nottebohm was ineligible for Guatemalan citizenship because he’d been born in Germany. In nineteen thirty-nine, Nottebohm traveled to Liechtenstein and applied to become a naturalized citizen. Nottebohm requested a waiver of Liechtenstein’s three-year residency requirement and paid the necessary fees and taxes. Nottebohm’s application met with approval. Twelve days after he’d submitted his application, he took the Liechtenstein oath of allegiance. Under Liechtenstein law, this meant he relinquished his German citizenship. Nottebohm then returned to Guatemala. He informed Guatemala of his change in citizenship.

The United States and Guatemala both entered World War Two in nineteen forty-one. President Roosevelt declared all German citizens to be enemy aliens.

In nineteen forty-three, Guatemala arrested Nottebohm as a German citizen. Nottebohm was interned in the U S for over two years. The U S and Guatemala seized a large amount of Nottebohm’s property and his company’s assets.

When Nottebohm was released in nineteen forty-six, Guatemala refused to let him return. Nottebohm moved to Liechtenstein.

In nineteen fifty-one, Liechtenstein sued Guatemala before the International Court of Justice, arguing that Guatemala had wrongfully refused to recognize its grant of citizenship. Guatemala countered that it didn’t have to recognize Nottebohm’s Liechtenstein naturalization and that he remained a German citizen under international law.

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