Restitution claims cannot be judged mechanically under other restitution legislation

The dispute concerned property that was taken from Josef Colloredo-Mansfeld during the Nazi occupation and not returned to him after the war. The general courts held that restitution was precluded in particular by the fact that the property had been transferred to the State before the decisive period after February 1948 and that the original owner had failed to submit a post-war application under Act No. 128/1946 Coll. However, the Constitutional Court emphasised that, in the case of claims under Section 2(2) of Act No. 243/1992 Coll., it was necessary to examine whether the person entitled at the time was entitled to the return of the property in substantive law, not merely whether he or she had made use of the procedural means of the time.

A significant part of the judgment also concerns the assessment of wartime and post-war circumstances. According to the Constitutional Court, the general courts attributed decisive importance to the fact that Josef Colloredo-Mansfeld should have completed the so-called Fragebogen, a questionnaire to establish German nationality. However, the content of the questionnaire itself has not been preserved and this partial indication cannot be interpreted as an offence against the Czechoslovak State. In the subsequent proceedings, the courts are to assess the case comprehensively, without excessive formalism and taking into account the entire historical context, including the evidence in favour of the restitution claim.