Re Princess Sophia of Albania

• Docket Number: 351
• Date: 03 February 1926
• Court: Obsolete Court (Romania)

Court of Jassy, 1st Chamber.

Case No. 351

In re Princess Sophia of Albania.

Enemy Character — Acquisition of as the Result of Unneutral Service — Nationality of Heads of States — Article 17 of Hague Convention V.

The Facts.—The Princess Sophia of Albania invoked, for the purpose of avoiding certain measures of sequestration instituted under the Peace Treaties against the property of German nationals, the fact that her husband, Prince Wied of Albania, although formerly a German national, had acquired Albanian nationality by accession to the Albanian throne in

Held: That the plea of the applicant failed—

(a) According to public law the sovereign acquired the nationality of the State which he governed, but

(b) Double nationality being possible, the Prince did not, by virtue of German law, lose automatically his German nationality as the result of the acquisition of Albanian nationality;

(c) In any case, even if the Prince lost his German nationality, he again acquired the legal status of a German national by having served in the German army during the war. Article 17 of...