International Law Reports, vol. 21, pp. 195-196 (1957)

 

Nationality—Loss of—By Expatriation—Monk of Mount Athos

Abroad Failing to Renew Leave of Absence—The Law of Greece.

 

MOUNT ATHOS (NATIONALITY) CASE.

 

Greece, Conseil d'État. 1954.

(Soliotis, President.)

 

THE FACTS.—Article 103 of the Greek Constitution, which governs the administrative autonomy of Mount Athos, provides, inter alia, that "all the monks of Mount Athos shall acquire, without other formality, Greek nationality on their reception as novices or as monks". The object of this provision for the compulsory acquisition by all the monks of Mount Athos of the status of Greek nationality is, on the one band, to enable them to enjoy the protection to which Greek ressortissants are entitled and, on the other band, to make them subject to Greek law, except as to certain matters specifically mentioned in Article 23 (notably those concerning the administration of the monasteries). Under Article 4 of the Presidential Decree of August 12/13, 1927 (ratifying the Decree of September 13/15, 1926, modifying certain provisions of the civil law), Greek nationals of foreign origin who leave Greek territory not intending to return lose their Greek nationality.

 

The appellant, a former monk of Mount Athos, obtained leave [*196] of absence and left Greece in 1950. He omitted to obtain from his monastery a renewal of his leave for the period from April 5, 1952, to March 27, 1953. He was also consecrated as a regular priest in a foreign country with the avowed object of celebrating divine service in a chapel there. In view of these facts, the Greek administrative authorities treated him as having lost his Greek nationality under the Presidential Decree of 1927. He appealed from this decision, contending that a monk who has acquired Greek nationality by admission to a monastery on Mount Athos cannot subsequently lose it by application of Greek law.

 

Held: that the appeal must fail. The appellant had lost his Greek nationality.

 

The Court said: "Article 103 of the Constitution does not exclude the application to monks who have acquired Greek nationality under it of the special provisions of the Presidential Decree of 1927. A monk who leaves the country definitively, that is, without the intention of returning, so far as that fact may be objectively established, cannot—at least in this particular case—invoke a privilege resulting from the acquisition of Greek nationality by virtue of a positive provision of the Constitution and as the result of [his status of monk]. The appellant claims that that privilege would exclude, so far as concerns him, the application of the Greek Law governing the loss of Greek nationality. But it is precisely that status of monk of Mount Athos which be renounces indirectly on definitively leaving Greek territory, and at the same tune the region of Mount Athos, without int ending to return to Greece. In such a case, any protection which may be accorded by Article 103 of the Constitution on the basis of his status of monk loses that basis because anyone who leaves the country in that way effectively ceases to be one of the number of persons who live a monastic life on Mount Athos.

 

"The Administration was therefore right in applying to the appellant Article 4 of the Presidential Decree of August 12/13, 1927, and in regarding as conforming with the juridical idea of departure without intending to return—which is the legal condition precedent to the application of the provisions of that Article—those circumstances which had come to its knowledge, and in particular (a) the appellant's failure to renew his application for leave of absence over a period of more than one year, and (b) his consecration as a priest abroad. On the strength of these facts the Administration was right in deciding that the legal condition had been fulfilled for the appellant, a Greek national of foreign origin, to be regarded as having lost Greek nationality by having left Greek territory without intending to return."

 

[Report: Revue Hellénique de Droit International, 8 (1955), p. 303.]