s the similar provisions of the minorities treaties, fell under the protection of the League of Nations.
2.6. The Legal Nature of the Sources of Substantive Minority Law
The legal nature of the enumerated sources requires a short explanation. They are legislative acts that refer to a legal relationship between state and its minorities, which formerly belonged in the sphere of domestic legislation. This is a known phenomenon in international law: a state voluntarily curbs its own sovereignty concerning the protection of minorities when, in the form of international commitments, it pledges to behave in a certain way concerning the issue of a given regulation. It is characteristic of legislative international treaties that they contain reciprocal undertaking of obligations. Sources of itemised minority law differ from the general practice in this respect. The parties pledge reciprocity concerning their minorities in the Convention on Upper Silesia between Germany and Poland, and the treaties between Austria and Czechoslovakia, Poland and Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and Romania, and Bulgaria and Greece. As opposed to this, the other minorities treaties, the relevant provisions of the peace treaties, and the declarations contain obligations undertaken by the states concerned unilaterally, while the other party (the Allied and Associated Powers) does not make a similar pledge concerning the treatment of their minorities. The resolution of the seeming contradiction, which stretches between the nature of the theoretically voluntarily pledged international commitments and the unilateral character of the above-mentioned treaties, is to be found in the circumstances of the adoption of these international legal acts and the need for some solution of the minority issue.
3. The Territorial Effect of the Minorities Treaties
The territorial effect of minorities treaties varies in extent. As a general rule, the provisions of the international treaties in this category extend not only to the territories acquired by way of the peace treaties, that is, the territories annexed to the original state territory, but also to the territory preceding the peace treaties. These provisions seek to guarantee protection to the minorities in the original state territory as well. We can find the following exceptions to this general rule in the treaties:
- Provisions of Article 9 Paragraph 3 of the Polish Minorities Treaty apply to Polish citizens of German speech only in that part of Poland which was German territory on 1 August 1914 and then was annexed to Poland with the Peace Treaty.
- Provisions of Article 9 Paragraph 3 of the Minorities Treaty of the Serb-Croatian-Slovenian State apply only to territory transferred to Serbia or to the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes since 1 January 1913.
- Similarly, provisions of Article 9 Paragraph 3 of the Greek Minorities Treaty apply only to territory transferred to Greece since 1 January 1913.
Despite these regulations, the Assembly of the League of Nations expressed its hope at its 3rd Full Session on 21 September 1922 that all the states not bound by minority protection treaties and, therefore, not linked to the League of Nations, would nevertheless be equally fair and tolerant towards the minorities in their territory as the countries bound by treaties have be.
4. Contents of the Relevant Provisions of the Minorities Treaties and Peace Treaties (Substantive Minority Law)
Below is an analysis of the contents of the Polish Minorities Treaty. The other minority protection treaties were modelled on this one.
Every minorities treaty, the provisions of the peace treaties, and the contents of the declarations by Albania, Lithuania, and Iraq more or less correspond to the Polish Minorities Treaty. Their similar traits can be categorised according to five conceptual units:
1. All citizens of a country are entitled to the right to life and liberty, and the free exercise of religion.
2. Right to citizenship: One is entitled to citizenship in the case his habitual residence or domicile ("leur domicile ou leur 