Broniowski v. Poland 2004

Tens of thousands of people compensated over World War II property claims

This verdict is a very big victory. It is a great joy for me and all the Bug River inhabitants.

Jerzy Broniowski, quoted in Rzeczpospolita (in Polish) - Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Background

Jerzy Broniowski had no memory of his grandmother’s home in what is now Lviv, Ukraine. He was just an infant when she was forced to leave.

At the end of the Second World War, Poland’s eastern border was fixed along the Bug river. Lands to the east, once Polish, became part of the Soviet Union. Over a million people were sent west, forced to abandon their homes.

Poland later agreed to compensate those people who had lost their properties. Most claims were settled immediately after the war.

Jerzy inherited his grandmother’s property claim from his late mother in 1989. By this time, the state had compensated his family with land. However, it later became clear that the land was worth only a fraction of what they were owed. When Jerzy asked for the rest, he was told there was a land shortage.

Other so-called “Bug River” claimants soon began to challenge a series of laws, passed to ease Poland’s transition from communism to democracy, which restricted their ability to receive state property as compensation.

In 2002, Poland’s top court ruled that these restrictions went against the rule of law and the claimants’ property rights.

While the law was changed to allow Bug River claimants to bid for state property, the agencies responsible prevented nearly all auctions from taking place.

Jerzy’s own hopes were shattered when, in December 2003, a new law cancelled Poland’s obligations to those who had already received land in compensation.

There were estimated to be nearly 80,000 Bug River claimants.

Judgment of the European Court of Human Rights

The European court found that Poland had violated Jerzy’s right to property.

The violation was due to a systemic problem, the court found. Polish law and administrative practice had failed, affecting many people.

The court therefore ruled that Poland should take steps to make sure that Bug River claimants were properly compensated.

This was the first time the European court used what became known as a ‘pilot judgment’ procedure to deal with widespread or systemic problems.

…the authorities, by imposing successive limitations on the exercise of [Jerzy’s] right to credit, and by applying the practices that made it unenforceable and unusable in practice, rendered that right illusory and destroyed its very essence.

Judgment of the European Court of Human Rights, June 2004

Follow-up

Following the European court’s judgment in his case, Jerzy and the Polish government agreed on a lump sum equal to €60,000 as compensation for his grandmother’s lost property.

In 2004, Poland’s top court declared certain parts of the December 2003 law to be unconstitutional, including the section that had cancelled the state’s obligations to people, like Jerzy, who had already received some compensation.

The following year, Poland passed a new law allowing Bug River claimants to choose to either take part in a land auction or receive a cash payment through a special fund.

These changes prompted the European court to bring its pilot judgment procedure to a successful end in October 2008. The court closed over a hundred pending Bug River cases.

By the end of July 2009, Poland had made 19,444 compensation payments to Bug River claimants, amounting to €206,500,000. Additionally, between 2004 and 2006, claimants made 1,635 auction purchases worth €1,600,000.

Themes:

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