Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-14T23:00:02.144Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Administration of Justice in the Swiss Federal Court in Intercantonal Disputes*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 May 2017

Dietrich Schindler
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

It is inherent hi the nature of a closer relation of states that an organ be created for the decision of disputes between the individual members of a confederation. The Swiss Confederation has at all times applied itself to this task.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Journal of International Law , Volume 15 , Issue 2 , April 1921 , pp. 149 - 188
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of International Law 1921

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

Translated from the German by, Zeydel E. H.Washington, D. C.

References

1 On the historical development of intercantonal law in general, of. Max Huber, this JOVJKXAL, January, 1909, p. 67.

2 English translation of Vincent, I. M., Government in Switzerland, New York, 1900. Google Scholar

3 3 Article 3 reads: "The cantons are sovereign, in so far as their sovereignty is not limited by the Federal Constitution, and as such they exercise all rights which are not entrusted to the Federal authority.".

4 Huber, Max., in tin's JOURNAL, Jan., 1900, p. 90. Google Scholar

5 5 Naturally, the whole body of intercantonal law will not be presented in the following pages, but rather only those not very numerous matters in which decisions have been rendered by the Federal Court. Systematic presentations of the entire intercantonal law are: Huber, Max., “The Intercantonal Law of Switzerland (Swiss Interstate Law)”; in this JOUBNAL, Jan., 1909 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Bolle, Arnold, Das interkantonale Recht, La Chaux-de-Fonds, 1907.Google Scholar CfBurckhardt, W. also. , Kommentar der Schweizerischen Bundesvprfassung, Berne, 1914,Google Scholar and Schollenberger, T. , Bundesverfassung der Schweixerischen Eidgenossenschaft, Kommentar mit Einleitung, Berlin, 1905 Google Scholar. The sources for the following presentation are: Recueil officiel des Arrets du Tribunal federal Suisse (cited as R. O.) appearing since 1875, one volume annually, since 1894 (24th volume) in two parts, since 1914 (40th volume) in three parts, of which the first contains in each case the decisions in public lawGoogle Scholar; Ullmer, R. B. , Die staatsrechtliehe Praxis der Schweizerischen Bundesbehorden, Vol. I, 1848-1860, Vol. II, 1848-1863 (cited Ullmer)Google Scholar ; von Salis, L. R., Schweiserisches Bundesrecht, Staatsrechtliehe und verwaltungsrechtliche Praxis des Bundesrates und der Bundesversanimlung seit 1874, 2d ed., Berne, 1904 Google Scholar.

6 There is a work on this subject by Gubler, Ed. :Interkantonales Armenrecht, Zurich, 1917.Google Scholar

7 A revision of the laws on citizenship for the purpose of introducing the principle of jus soli for the naturalization of foreigners is under way.

8 According to Article 45, paragraph 3, of the Federal Constitution, permission for domiciliation may be withdrawn in the case of Swiss citizens from other cantons “who are a permanent burden on public charity and whose home commune or home canton does not grant suitable support in spite of official request." The Federal Court in the said decision concludes therefrom that the duty of support devolves upon the community of the domicile in the case of merely temporary need.”

9 At any rate, the Federal Law of 1852 applies only in so far as the enactment of penal laws is vested in the cantons. According to Article 150 of the Federal Law of March 22, 1893, concerning the admin stration of Federal laws, the authorities of a canton must lend legal assistance in criminal cases to be decided according to the Confederate laws, to the authorities of the other cantons, not only for examination, but also in the execution of sentences, in the same way as they are bound to lend such aid to the authorities of their own canton. (Salis, IV, No. 1689, 1710.)

10 A canton is always free to execute public law decisions of other cantons upon its territory (R. 0. 28, I, p. 142; 32, I, p. 645; 39, I, p. 615), while it is bound to execute decisions in civil law according to Article 61 of the Federal Constitution.

11 The arguments of the Federal Court in R. 0. 41, I, p. 509, concerning criminal * prosecution by the requested canton do not seem to be in contradiction to the opinion stated in the text.

12 At all events, the question was left open whether, in view of Article 67 of the Federal Constitution (vide supra, p. 180), the obligation of lending legal assistance holds also for political and press offenses, as well as for offenses not committed within the demanding canton.

13 There is a discussion of this practice in Burckhardt, Kommentar, p. 419 et seq.