PARTLY DISSENTING OPINION OF JUDGE KOUMANTOS JOINED BY JUDGE ZUPANČIČ

(Translation)

I voted against the finding of a violation of Article 1 of Protocol No. 1. Article 1 is intended to protect private property belonging to natural or legal persons. It is not applicable to property assigned to certain persons in connection with their public duties, even where such property also retains some features governed by private law. In such cases the property is subject to a sui generis regime, part public and part private, which excludes application of Article 1 of Protocol No. 1.

That is the case with regard to the possessions of the former royal family of Greece for the following reasons, which apply to all the separate pieces of property making up those possessions: (a) a large proportion of the property concerned originated in gifts from the State or other public entities which would not have been made and could not have been made under the Constitution if the donee had not exercised royal powers; (b) these possessions have always been subject to a favourable special regime concerning the rules of succession, taxation (inheritance, transfer and, until 1974, income), procedural and substantive privileges (no limitation period for claims, no acquisition by adverse possession, criminal penalties for trespass), maintenance costs and remuneration of the staff employed there; (c) whenever the political circumstances were favourable, the royal family's rights over these possessions were confirmed by special laws, which would have been unnecessary if these rights had been governed solely by “ordinary” civil law; (d) Legislative Decree no. 72/1974 (after the fall of the dictatorship and the re-establishment of democracy) provided for special administration of the royal possessions “until final determination of the form of government”, thus expressly linking the fate of these possessions with the form of government (republic or monarchy).

With regard to specific possessions of the former royal family, the following facts must be taken into consideration: (a) the property Mon Repos in Corfu was, at the outset, placed at the King's disposal for his “use”; (b) the will signed by King George I in 1904 stipulated that the property of Tatoi was to be used as the “permanent residence of the reigning King of the Hellenes ”; (c) when, in 1917, King Constantine was obliged to abdicate in favour of his second son, who became King Alexander I, the latter acquired the property of Tatoi in his father's lifetime despite the existence of co-heirs as defined by the “ordinary” civil law; (d) after the

death of Alexander I in 1920 and the restoration of Constantine I, the property of Tatoi passed to Constantine once more and not to the heirs of Alexander I; (e) after the death of Constantine I, the property of Tatoi passed to his first-born son and successor to the throne and not to his other heirs.

In addition, the Tatoi property must remain outside the scope of the present application since (a) it is the subject of another application to be examined by the Court lodged by the foundation to which it was donated and (b) the applicant himself expressly declared that his application did not concern that property (see the applicants' memorial of 12 April 2000, footnote 16).