TrustHLT/LaCour huggingface dataset:
AP1 (Applicant): Я прошу суд, связанный с моим вторым мандатом, который я предоставил этому суду, чтобы дать мне сообщение, вопрос, возможно, объяснение, как дальше пройти с этим мандатом.
AP1 (Applicant): А третье.
AP1 (Applicant): Я остаюсь с заданием о выносливом обеспечении предназначенных причин.
Dean Spielmann (JudgeP): Merci beaucoup, M. Mujčin.
Dean Spielmann (JudgeP): Si je comprends bien, vous n'avez pas d'autres observations à faire à ce stade?
Dean Spielmann (JudgeP): Bien.
Dean Spielmann (JudgeP): Je vais donc appeler Mme Mijić.
GR5 (Government): Thank you Mr. President, Honourable Judges of the Court.
GR5 (Government): The applicants deposited their savings in Slovenian and Serbian banks and for more than 22 years have not been able to retrieve their savings.
GR5 (Government): The same fate of these three applicants has been shared by hundreds of thousands of savers of the Serbian Invesbank and the Slovenian Ljubljanska Bank.
GR5 (Government): Nevertheless, the present case is a simple case.
GR5 (Government): This fact has been confirmed by numerous final judgments of Slovenian courts which have established that the repayment of foreign currency savings is exclusively a private law issue and that the contractual obligations of the bank towards its savers have been neither conditioned by nor linked to the succession issues of the former Yugoslavia.
GR5 (Government): Slovenian courts also established that the Ljubljanska Bank had been liable for the obligations of its branches outside Slovenia and had to pay out savings to savers of its branches in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
GR5 (Government): They also established that the main branch in Sarajevo was not transformed into an independent bank, so Ljubljanska Bank remained liable for the obligations of its main branch in Sarajevo.
GR5 (Government): These facts were also confirmed by the final decisions of the Municipal Court and Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
GR5 (Government): Hence, the very essence of this case has already been decided before Slovenian courts.
GR5 (Government): And all arguments of Slovenian government in the present case, including the one concerning the issue of succession, were rejected as ill-founded long time ago.
GR5 (Government): Therefore the problem of return of foreign currency savings in this case is not a result of the solution of former Yugoslavia, but the outcome of unilateral legislative measures of Slovenia and Serbia.
GR5 (Government): Unlike Slovenia and Serbia, Croatia has entirely paid out old foreign currency savings to all citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina who had deposited their savings with the branches of the Croatian Splitska Bank on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
GR5 (Government): We emphasize that Slovenian Ljubljanska Bank was the most successful bank in the former Yugoslavia, enjoying a full confidence of numerous savers outside Slovenia irrespective of their nationality, which enabled this bank to draw out the foreign currency from other republics of former Yugoslavia.
GR5 (Government): Namely at the end of the 1960s in the former Yugoslavia, people were allowed to go abroad to work, which led to a sudden increase of foreign exchange savings.
GR5 (Government): This prompted Ljubljanska Bank from Slovenia, which had only 1.5 million inhabitants, to
GR5 (Government): strengthen its banking network and especially in the republics where many people worked abroad, primarily in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, each with 4 million inhabitants.
GR5 (Government): In 1969, the Slovenian Ljubljanska Bank established its first branch office in Sarajevo and in other Yugoslav republics with a primary financial interest to collect foreign currency from citizens.
GR5 (Government): Towards the end of the 1970s, branch offices of Ljubljanska Bank transformed into Ljubljanska Bank Basic Banks, which united their labour and assets to form the Ljubljanska Bank United Bank.
GR5 (Government): Unlike Basic Banks, only the United Bank, as an umbrella bank, was authorised to perform all banking operations abroad and to control the use of funds in Basic Banks.
GR5 (Government): Basic Banks of Ljubljanska Bank regularly, on a daily and weekly basis, physically send all surplus of deposited foreign currency to the National Bank of Slovenia for the United Bank Ljubljanska Bank.
GR5 (Government): The documentation we have submitted to the Court proves, beyond any doubt, that in the period between September 1982 and October 1991, a total amount of foreign currency of almost 3 million DM was physically transported from Bosnia and Herzegovina to the National Bank of Slovenia.
GR5 (Government): Additionally, foreign currency of numerous savers from Bosnia and Herzegovina deposited abroad to the accounts of the United Bank Ljubljana were never transported to Bosnia and Herzegovina but remained abroad.
GR5 (Government): For example, in 1976 the applicant Sajak deposited his savings on the account of Ljubljanska Bank in Germany.
GR5 (Government): This deposit was only registered in bookkeeping terms on his account in the branch of Ljubljanska Bank in Sarajevo.
GR5 (Government): United Bank Ljubljana disposed freely with foreign currency physically received from its basic banks.
GR5 (Government): For these purposes and under special mutual contracts, National Bank of Slovenia shipped abroad foreign currency collected by basic banks exclusively on behalf and for United Bank Ljubljana and exclusively upon specified written orders of United Bank Ljubljana.
GR5 (Government): So the claim of Slovenian government that United Bank shipped foreign currency abroad pursuant to the instructions and for the accounts of basic banks is simply not true.
GR5 (Government): The Slovenian government failed to submit any evidence in support of these four allegations, including no proof that United Bank shipped the received foreign currency further to National Bank of Yugoslavia.
GR5 (Government): We emphasize that the Slovenian government with the intent to mislead the court in this case, firstly claimed that no foreign currency from basic banks were ever transferred to Slovenia.
GR5 (Government): After being faced with undisputable evidences to the contrary, they claimed that they red deposited their foreign currency with National Bank of Yugoslavia.
GR5 (Government): Now before Grand Chamber, they make a new false claim that the foreign currency was shipped to the accounts of National Bank of Yugoslavia abroad pursuant to non-existing instructions of basic banks.
GR5 (Government): To substantiate these completely false claims, Slovenian government submitted absolutely useless and irrelevant documentation to the court which only show some, for the present case, irrelevant transactions of United Bank concerning purchased foreign currency in exchange offices, gas vouchers, cheques and some unspecified shipments of dinners and foreign currency to numerous Yugoslav and foreign banks.
GR5 (Government): On 1st January 1990, Ljubljana Bank transformed into a joint stock company and became the legal successor of United Bank Ljubljana and its previous basic banks, which again became branches of Ljubljanska Bank with no legal personality.
GR5 (Government): Contrary to Slovenian allegations, Ljubljanska Bank had full control of business operations of its main branch in Sarajevo until May 1992 when the siege of the city Sarajevo started.
GR5 (Government): After Slovenia declared its independence in June 1991, Ljubljanska Bank tried to get rid of its liabilities towards savers by an unaccessible attempt to transform its main branch in Sarajevo into a commercial bank.
GR5 (Government): In response to this attempt, in October 1991, National Bank of Yugoslavia recognized that the measures of Slovenian financial authorities were unpredictable and that the creators of the Slovenian monetary system had no intention to comply with the absolute obligations of the banks towards savers.
GR5 (Government): This unfortunately turned out to be true.
GR5 (Government): Under its constitution, Slovenia assumed guarantees only for the foreign currency savings deposited in banks on the Slovenian territory.
GR5 (Government): This constitutional measure is clearly unjust, bearing in mind that Slovenia's largest and most successful Ljubljanska Bank was mainly developed by foreign currency savings deposited outside Slovenian territory, which is quite clear since Slovenia had only 1.
GR5 (Government): million inhabitants.
GR5 (Government): Consequently, while Ljubljanska Bank was collecting foreign currency outside the Slovenian territory and building its empire on these deposits, no territorial principle was applied.
GR5 (Government): But now, when it comes to the repayment of hard-earned savings of Bosnian and Croatian savers, the Slovenian authorities insist on this principle.
GR5 (Government): This is obviously unfair and hypocritical.
GR5 (Government): In 1992, Ljubljanska Bank, which factually and legally took over the extremely successful business and assets of basic banks from other former Yugoslav republics, was internationally successful and the most dominant bank in the Slovenian market.
GR5 (Government): So this is 1992.
GR5 (Government): This bank also fully owned several successful banks around the world.
GR5 (Government): And this was confirmed by the annual report of Ljubljanska Bank at the end of 1991.
GR5 (Government): Therefore, we rightly submit that in 1993, a year later, Slovenia initiated a fake rehabilitation procedure for Ljubljanska Bank with the aim of making the Republic of Slovenia the sole owner of this bank and justifying its further constitutional measures, which bluntly violated many of the applicants' rights, as earlier predicted by the National Bank of Yugoslavia.
GR5 (Government): Finally, by the 1994 constitutional law, Slovenia unilaterally and arbitrarily restructured the extremely successful old Ljubljanska Bank by founding a new Ljubljanska Bank.
GR5 (Government): Under this law, Ljubljanska Bank transferred all assets and business to the new bank, but kept the full liability for saving accounts not guaranteed by the Republic of Slovenia.
GR5 (Government): Therefore, due to the 1994 constitutional act, and not due to the solution of former Yugoslavia, Ljubljanska Bank was made insolvent and left with no assets for the repayment of savings.
GR5 (Government): By this constitutional manoeuvre, unheard of in a democratic society and undertaken during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia, Slovenia literally ripped off Bosnian and Croatian savers of the Ljubljanska Bank.
GR5 (Government): This law bluntly violated applicants' property rights, the right to an effective remedy, the right to access to court, and it harshly discriminated against them.
GR5 (Government): The applicant, Csakhdanovic, on the other hand, deposited his savings in the branch of the Serbian Invest Bank on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
GR5 (Government): Under the same relevant legislation of the former Yugoslavia, the Invest Bank, as a legal person, was liable for the obligations of its branches.
GR5 (Government): This was confirmed by the final judgment of a Serbian court in the case Csakhdanovic v.
GR5 (Government): Yugoslav Export and Credit Bank.
GR5 (Government): In this case, a Serbian court ordered a Serbian bank to pay old foreign currency savings deposited in its branch on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
GR5 (Government): Therefore, it is quite clear that the relationship between the applicant, who is the saver, and the Invest Bank is a private law relationship between a debtor and a creditor.
GR5 (Government): Serbia has directly interfered with this private law relationship.
GR5 (Government): By its 1998 Foreign Currency Saving Act, Serbia took over, as a public debt, the liabilities arising from the old foreign currency savings deposited with domestic banks.
GR5 (Government): By this law, Serbia suspended all court proceedings regarding repayment of the old foreign currency savings and violated the applicant's right to access to court and legal remedy.
GR5 (Government): Also under the 2002 Public Debt Act, Serbia, without any reasonable or objective justification, completely excluded from its public debt the claims of savers, citizens of other former Yugoslav republics, and of those savers who deposited their savings outside the Serbian territory.
GR5 (Government): We emphasize that all savers on the Invest Bank deposited their savings under the same conditions, regardless of their citizenship and the place of depositing.
GR5 (Government): Nevertheless, by its laws, Serbia directly discriminated against savers of its bank on the basis of nationality.
GR5 (Government): In January 2002, the bankruptcy procedure of the Invest Bank was initiated.
GR5 (Government): Soon after that, the Serbian Deposit Insurance Agency, as a bankruptcy manager, sold out all real property of the Invest Bank in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
GR5 (Government): Furthermore, Serbia used the bankruptcy estate of the bank to settle its own claims fully.
GR5 (Government): Also in a government decision, it has written off the debts of strategically important state-owned companies to the Invest Bank in order to be able to privatize them and gain millions in profit.
Dean Spielmann (JudgeP): Mrs. Mijić, may I ask you to conclude?
Dean Spielmann (JudgeP): Your 15 minutes have already expired.
GR5 (Government): Okay, I'll do that.
GR5 (Government): So, I will read the final sentence.
GR5 (Government): Of course, we deem Slovenia responsible for the violation of applicant's Shostakovich rights.
GR5 (Government): And finally, we deem that this case is completely suitable for the pilot judgment procedure as it concerns a systemic problem of huge number of savers of Slovenian and Serbian banks.
GR5 (Government): We strongly believe that only the pilot judgment will once and for all resolve this continuous and long-lasting violation of the rights of the applicants and other numerous savers in the same condition.
GR5 (Government): Thank you very much, and I apologize for extending my time.
Dean Spielmann (JudgeP): Thank you, Miss Mijić.
Dean Spielmann (JudgeP): I call Miss Stažnik.
GR2 (Government): Respected judges of the Grand Chamber, in today's hearing, I will argue that this case before the court is a matter of private law relationship between the savers and the banks regarding their savings, not an issue of succession among the successor states of the former Yugoslavia.
GR2 (Government): Relations and liabilities of successor states within the public law sphere are irrelevant for the resolution of this case before the court.
GR2 (Government): As the court rightfully established in its chamber judgments, two states, Republic of Slovenia and Republic of Serbia, unjustifiably interfered into this private law relationship, preventing a large number of savers of their banks to peacefully enjoy their hard-earned money for more than 20 years.
GR2 (Government): Other respondent states did not, by their respective legislation, action or practice in any way prevented applicants and other savers of those commercial banks, namely Slovenian Ljubljanska Bank and Serbian Invest Bank, from withdrawing their savings with accumulated interest.
GR2 (Government): Honorable judges of the Grand Chamber, deposit contracts concluded between the savers and the banks in former Serfaraje were identical to deposit contracts commercial banks offer today in any market-oriented economy.
GR2 (Government): Accordingly, the applicants and all other savers had the right to withdraw their money at any time, while the banks were and still are obliged to fulfill their contractual obligation of paying out the received deposits.
GR2 (Government): No bank can refuse to abide by this contractual obligation without a solid legal base, nor could changes in banks' internal organization affect this obligation.
GR2 (Government): In ex-Yugoslavia, the federation guarantee for those savings could have been activated only in case of bankruptcy or manifest insolvency, and only at the request of the bank.
GR2 (Government): Such a scenario did not take place as neither of those successful banks ever declared bankruptcy or were manifestly insolvent.
GR2 (Government): Liability, therefore, did not shift from the banks to ex-Yugoslavia, and the banks remained liable for their debts to savers.
GR2 (Government): Thus, obviously, the private law relationship between the savers and those banks survived the dissolution of Serfaraje.
GR2 (Government): As the court rightfully established in the chamber judgment, when the Republic of Slovenia became independent state, it nationalized Ljubljanska Bank, which owed unreturned savings to a large number of its savers.
GR2 (Government): As the owner of the bank, Republic of Slovenia became the only one liable for the bank's profit and debts.
GR2 (Government): After nationalization, Republic of Slovenia used legislative measures in order to avoid its liability towards the savers.
GR2 (Government): In the night on 26 to 27 July in 1994, the Slovenian parliament, at a closed session and by secret procedure, enacted the 1994 Constitutional Act, the legislation of highest constitutional rank, permanently preventing applicants and many other savers to recover their savings deposited into Ljubljanska Bank.
GR2 (Government): By this act, Republic of Slovenia transferred all assets and businesses of its Ljubljanska Bank to Nova Ljubljanska Bank, leaving the now called Old Ljubljanska Bank literally without assets, but however liable in full for foreign currency savings collected in its branches outside the Republic of Slovenia, precisely in its branch in Sarajevo, Zagreb, and Skopje.
GR2 (Government): The next logical question which comes to mind is where the savers' money ended up.
GR2 (Government): Considering the fact that the savers' foreign currency deposits were deposited by Ljubljanska Bank on its accounts abroad, outside the SFRJ, or in vaults of National Bank of Slovenia, and that this money was never a part of succession mass, nor was it divided between the main bank and its Zagreb, Sarajevo, or Skopje branch, the conclusion is that the money did end up in Ljubljana, and still is it at Ljubljana disposal.
GR2 (Government): Slovenia hasn't proved to the contrary during the case before the court.
GR2 (Government): Therefore, the government respectfully invites the court to eliminate any doubt to where the foreign currency savings from branches ended up.
GR2 (Government): It is important to note that precisely the assets and businesses of Zagreb, Sarajevo, and Skopje branches of Ljubljanska Bank, mostly based on savers' foreign currency deposits, accounted to the majority of Ljubljanska Bank Ljubljana assets and businesses.
GR2 (Government): From the beginning of 1990s, those assets have been trapped in the hands of the Republic of Slovenia.
GR2 (Government): Nota bene, loans which Ljubljanska Bank granted to companies seated in Croatia represented only 1 10th of the funds obtained by its Zagreb branch on behalf of Ljubljanska Bank.
GR2 (Government): Moreover, Ljubljanska Bank granted those loans with interest adjusted to profitable margin.
GR2 (Government): Those loans, therefore, cannot be deemed to be investments in the Croatian economy, but solely and exclusively the means of making a profit by Ljubljanska Bank.
GR2 (Government): It has collected 10 times more foreign currency in its Zagreb branch than it has returned into Croatian economy.
GR2 (Government): From the above said, it is evident that the persistent Slovenia's argument about its investment into Croatian economy is unfounded.
GR2 (Government): Respected judges of the court, Slovenia's arguments relating to the insolvency of Ljubljanska Bank are also illogical and unfounded.
GR2 (Government): The mere fact that the Republic of Slovenia founded Nova Ljubljanska Bank using the assets and business of old Ljubljanska Bank proves that these assets were sufficient for normal business of a bank.
GR2 (Government): In fact, these assets and business were enough to make Nova Ljubljanska Bank one of the largest internationally recognized banks with excellent credit ratings.
GR2 (Government): The government of Croatia points out that the aim of rehabilitation of a company is settling at last part of its debts to the creditors and enabling further business operations.
GR2 (Government): Rehabilitation of a company cannot be achieved by confiscation of all company's assets and transfer of its business to the new company, as Slovenia did with Ljubljanska Bank.
GR2 (Government): Therefore, Croatia deems that the old Ljubljanska Bank could not be rehabilitated through the establishment of Nova Ljubljanska Bank.
GR2 (Government): That is yet another proof that inability of the Ljubljanska Bank to service its debts is the result of actions undertaken by Slovenia, which transferred by virtue of law its assets and businesses to another bank, instead enabling the bank to continue its business.
GR2 (Government): Accordingly, it is obvious that Republic of Slovenia interfered into the private law relationship within the service and its bank, and as the chamber rightfully concluded.
GR2 (Government): Slovenia allegations that applicants' inability to recover their deposits originates from breakup of suffragette are therefore completely unfounded and misleading.
GR2 (Government): They cannot serve as a justified reason to prevent its banks repaying their non-Slovenian service.
GR2 (Government): Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Macedonia were in the same, even worse financial position than Slovenia, faced with war and major humanitarian crisis.
GR2 (Government): Despite of that, they still enabled their banks to repay debts to their savers, irrespective of their nationality and location.
GR2 (Government): Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Macedonia also had their banks, which collected foreign currency throughout suffragette.
GR2 (Government): They do not have similar issues with the savers of its banks.
GR2 (Government): Neither of these states ever undertook measures comparable to those of Republic of Slovenia.
GR2 (Government): Quite contrary, as the court rightfully established, Croatia and Macedonia have repaid a large part of all foreign currency savings, even as an interim measure for branches of Ljubljanska Bank on their territory.
GR2 (Government): Nevertheless, they never abandoned their position that Slovenia should be held liable and continue to claim compensation at interstate level.
GR2 (Government): Because of unprecedented measures taken by the Republic of Slovenia, sole shareholder of the old Ljubljanska Bank, which by the constitutional law transferred assets and business of this bank to another bank, and thus prevented this bank to service its debts, Slovenia should be liable for the bank's debt to the applicants and all other savers of its branches in ex Yugoslavia, who are in the same position as applicants.
GR2 (Government): During proceedings before the court, Slovenia has not proved to the contrary.
GR2 (Government): Slovenia not only omitted to take interim measures aimed at protecting the interests of its savers, but it also denied them any effective remedy in that respect.
GR2 (Government): As the chamber rightfully concluded, every attempt by savers to recover their savings has been futile since Slovenia has not offered savers of Ljubljanska Bank any remedy to deal with the substance of their claim under the convention and to grant them appropriate relief.
GR2 (Government): Savers who have used legal remedies, Slovenia offered, and those who have not are basically in the same position.
GR2 (Government): As the judgments obtained, either from Slovenia or other courts have remained ineffective in practice.
GR2 (Government): Civil actions against Ljubljanska Bank in Slovenian courts offer no reasonable chance of success.
GR2 (Government): They are unenforceable since Ljubljanska Bank in Ljubljana has no assets.
GR2 (Government): Civil action against the Republic of Slovenia before Slovenian courts are ineffective because all such actions have been rejected by Slovenian courts.