Mavromattis Palestine Concessions (the Mavromattis Fiction)

Before the First World War, the area which is now Israel was territory controlled by the Turkish Ottoman Empire and was known as Palestine. Turkey fought alongside Germany and Austria-Hungary in the war and was thus defeated. Like the other defeated nations it lost control of many external territories which were instead governed under a mandate granted by the League of Nations. Great Britain had the mandate to govern Palestine. While the area was under Ottoman control, a range of concessions had been granted to Mavrimatis for him to provide infrastructure development including electricity, water and tramways in a number of cities including Jerusalem and Jaffa. Great Britain did not consider itself bound by those concessions and instead granted them to a man named Rutenberg whose efforts were part of the Zionist effort to create a homeland in the area for Jewish people. Mavrimatis of course was unhappy to lose the concession and sued in the Permanent Court of International Justice to at least recover his losses. There were a series of cases but the first is the one best remembered. Generally international courts are institutions where nations resolve their disputes. They're not really a court for individuals. Mavrimatis' native country Greece stepped in to take action on his behalf. Great Britain objected. After all Greece had not suffered any loss. The court found that Greece was entitled to do this. The judgment says it is an elementary principle of international law that a state is entitled to protect its subjects when injured by acts contrary to international law committed by another state from whom they have been unable to obtain satisfaction through the ordinary channels. By taking up the case of one of its subjects and by resorting to diplomatic action or international judicial proceedings on his behalf a state is in reality asserting its own rights. Its right to ensure in the person of its subjects respect for the rules of international law. This became known as the Mavrimatis fiction that harm done to an individual from a particular nation may be regarded as harm done to the nation itself. In this case though even with the Greek government on his side Mavrimatis was ultimately unsuccessful in obtaining either the concession or any damages for his losses.