NOTTEBOHM CASE

Nottebohm case (Liechtenstein v. Guatemala) [1955] ICJ 1 is the proper name for the 1955 case
adjudicated by the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Liechtenstein sought a ruling to
force Guatemala to recognize Friedrich Nottebohm as a Liechtenstein national.

The case has been cited in many definitions of nationality.

Facts: Friedrich Nottebohm was born September 16, 1881, in Hamburg, Germany. In 1905, he moved
to Guatemala, where he went into business in trade, banking, and plantations with his brothers. The
business prospered, and Nottebohm became its head in 1937. Nottebohm would live in Guatemala until
1943 as a permanent resident without ever acquiring Guatemalan citizenship. He would sometimes visit
Germany on business, and had friends and relatives in both countries. He also paid a few visits to
Liechtenstein to see his brother Hermann, who had moved there in 1931 and became a citizen.

In 1939, Nottebohm again visited Liechtenstein, and on October 9, 1939, shortly after World War II began,
he applied for citizenship. His application was approved and he became a citizen. Under German law, he
lost his German citizenship. In January 1940, he returned to Guatemala on a Liechtenstein passport and
informed the local government of his change of nationality.

Although originally neutral, Guatemala soon sided with the Allies and formally declared war on Germany
on December 11, 1941. In spite of his Liechtenstein citizenship, the Guatemalan government treated
Nottebohm as a German citizen. As part of a massive program in which the US co-operated with various
Latin American countries to intern in the US over 4,000 persons of German ancestry or citizenship,
Nottebohm was arrested by the Guatemalan government as an enemy alien in 1943, handed over to a US
military base, and transferred to the US, where he was interned until 1946. The Guatemalan government
confiscated all his property in the country, and the US government also seized his company's assets in the
US. In 1950, the US government returned to the Nottenbohm family about half the value of what it had
seized. The Guatemalan government held on to his property and returned 16 coffee plantations to his
family only in 1962, after he had died. After his release, he returned to Liechtenstein, where he lived for
the rest of his life.

In 1951, the Liechtenstein government, acting on behalf of Nottebohm, brought suit against Guatemala
in the International Court of Justice for what it argued was unjust treatment of him and the illegal
confiscation of his property. However, the government of Guatemala argued that Nottebohm did not gain
Liechtenstein citizenship for the purposes of international law. The court agreed and so stopped the case
from continuing.

Ruling: Although the Court stated that it is the sovereign right of all states to determine its own citizens
and criteria for becoming one in municipal law, such a process would have to be internationally scrutinized
if the question is of diplomatic protection. The Court upheld the principle of effective nationality
(the Nottebohm principle): the national must prove a meaningful connection to the state in question. That
principle had previously been applied only in cases of dual nationality to determine the nationality that
should be used in a given case. The court ruled that Nottebohm's naturalization as a citizen of
Liechtenstein had not been based on any genuine link with that country, but for the sole purpose of
enabling him to replace his status as the national of a belligerent state with that of a neutral state in a
time of war. The Court held that Liechtenstein was not entitled to take up his case and put forward an
international claim on his behalf against Guatemala:

— Naturalization was asked for not so much for the purpose of obtaining a legal recognition of
Nottebohm's membership in fact in the population of Liechtenstein, as it was to enable him to substitute
for his status as a national of a belligerent State that of a national of a neutral State, with the sole aim of
thus coming within the protection of Liechtenstein but not of becoming wedded to its traditions, its
interests, its way of life or of assuming the obligations-other than fiscal obligations-and exercising the
rights pertaining to the status thus acquired.

Guatemala is under no obligation to recognize a nationality granted in such circumstances. Liechtenstein

consequently is not entitled to extend its protection to Nottebohm vis-à-vis Guatemala and its claim must,
for this reason, be held to be inadmissible.