the nationality of all inhabitants of the czech provinces and ...

Chapter VII The Transfer and its Legal Aspects
understandable that, in these cases, they
were dealt with according to the laws of
revolution. And in spite of this, some of
these acts have been dug up, and
deserving fighters for the freedom of the
nation are now made to suffer.”
The theorists and the jurists
emphasised the importance of motives
and circumstances in the law. In one of
the published articles, the law was
explained as making a new case for
ruling out illegality beside the reasons
already in Paragraph II (error, defence or
emergency). The validity of this law was
temporary, and had a time limit.
The criterion for whether an act was
punishable or not was its motive.
The law stated in a detailed list two
causes: the fight for the liberation of the
Republic, and just retribution. It did not
refer to acts that took place during
fighting between the regularly warring
armies. These acts were already exempt
from punishment, on the grounds that
they were carried out in the context of
duty properly allocated by law
(compulsory military service). This law
was to apply to the acts of volunteers,
mainly partisans, members of the
resistance, saboteurs, etc., who had
committed acts which would be criminal
in other circumstances, such as the
destruction of bridges, warehouses and
factories, and also the sabotage of
production, etc., not as a military or
other legal duty, but individually and
voluntarily. The noble motive for these
acts (fighting for the mother country)
rendered them irreproachable.
The second condition was concerned
with just retribution. This provision was
added to Constitutional Decree
137/1945 Coll., of October 27, 1945, by
which the arrest of persons considered a
security risk, or extension of their
temporary custody (incarceration)
beyond the time allowed by law, was
declared legal. This provision was in
response to the reality that, during the
revolutionary period people were being
arrested by persons who were not,
according to the existing regulations,
authorised to do so (for example,
members of local National Committees,
262
or other official representatives of the
Republic), and “police custody” lasted
longer than the law allowed, and was
approved even in cases where there was
no justification in law. Until then these
cases contravened the existing legal code.
Constitutional Decree 137/1945 Coll.,
resolved this issue by defining these as
legal if they took place before the
enactment of this decree. The result of
this measure was that those arrested did
not have a right to compensation.
All other cases where the previous
legal code was contravened in the process
of retribution were given impunity
according to Law No. 115/1946 Coll.
This applied only in cases where the
motive for the act was just retribution,
and therefore a motive deemed noble.
If the act was committed for immoral or
base reasons, such as from the desire to
settle personal scores, revenge, greed,
etc., it was not possible to speak of just
retribution.
The law did not want to declare
impunity for acts whose motivations were
base, dishonourable or immoral. That is
why it selected only two motives which it
regarded as comparable. In contrast to the
motive for legality and impunity expressed
in Hitler’s “Amnesty Decree”, which was
intended to justify aggression against
Czechoslovakia, Law No. 115/1946 Coll.,
put forward another motive – just
retribution for crimes committed by an
aggressor. The retribution had to be just,
and could not be based on low and
dishonourable motives. This provision was
also exceptional in that it precluded
extensive interpretation.
Application of the Law
We can read about the application of the
law at that time in parliamentary
records, in published court proceedings
and in the daily press. These reports give
us a picture of the degree to which it was
possible to maintain successfully the
intentions of the legislature and the
intended limits of the law.
Justice Minister Prokop Drtina dealt
with this law in detail during his
speeches in parliament in connection
with retribution. The cases which he