Vaclav Klaus vs. The Sudeten Germans etc.

There's an interesting but depressing article here, which is all the more interesting for what it doesn't say as for what it does. This part, however, sets me off on a tangent:

Klaus signed the EU reform Lisbon treaty on Tuesday after the Constitutional Court (US) ruled that it is in line with the Czech constitutional order, and after the EU met his demand for an opt-out for Czechs from the Charter of Fundamental Rights, part of the Lisbon treaty. Klaus demanded it in fears that the charter might enable the transferred Germans to claim their former property on Czech soil, confiscated from them on the basis of the post-war Benes decrees...

As I said in my previous post:

... the only pre-requisite for land ownership is a state to guarantee title*; and once you have a state you have land ownership (even if the land belongs to 'the state' or is earmarked as common land). Land-ownership and the state are two sides of the same coin.

So this is an excellent example of land-ownership and the (sovereign) state being two sides of the same coin. The Czechs are giving up part of/a lot of** their "sovereignty" and with it are giving up the right to guarantee the title to land that their state had granted to others under the Benes decree.

Those pesky Sudeten Germans might now find that a higher 'state' (i.e. the EU) is now guaranteeing their title to that land, which trumps the Czech government's guarantee. OK, in practice, I'd expect them to be compensated in cash rather than actual Czechs being physically evicted, but the principle stands.

* Unlike any other form of 'property' which can only arise from an individual's efforts and free exchanges with other individuals.

** Delete according to taste.