## Facts

- A Greek national, Mavrommatis, obtained Ottoman-era concessions for public works in Palestine, including an electric tramway, electric light and power, and drinking water in Jerusalem, and related concessions in Jaffa.
- After World War I, Palestine came under British administration pursuant to a League of Nations mandate.
- Greece alleged that, from 1921 onward, the Palestine administration and Great Britain as Mandatory wrongfully refused to recognize Mavrommatis’s concession rights and impeded their performance, including by granting a competing Jerusalem concession to another party in 1921.
- Greece narrowed its claims during the pleadings, abandoning claims related to Jordan Valley irrigation and proceeding only on the Jerusalem and Jaffa concessions.
- Greece sought a declaration of wrongful non-recognition and an order of reparation for resulting losses (with interest).
- Greece instituted proceedings before the Permanent Court of International Justice (PCIJ), relying on a compromissory clause in the Palestine Mandate allowing disputes about the “interpretation or application” of the Mandate between the Mandatory and a League Member to be submitted to the Court.
- Great Britain raised preliminary objections, arguing the dispute was not about the Mandate, was instead governed by the Treaty of Lausanne’s concessions protocol, and that certain jurisdictional conditions (including local remedies) were not met.

## Issues

1. Whether the dispute was one “relating to the interpretation or the application” of the Palestine Mandate within the meaning of the Mandate’s jurisdiction clause.
2. Whether Greece’s espousal of its national’s concession claim constituted an inter-state “dispute” between Greece and Great Britain rather than a private dispute with local authorities.
3. Whether the Treaty of Lausanne’s concessions protocol displaced or excluded the Court’s jurisdiction under the Mandate.
4. Whether objections based on local remedies or similar prerequisites defeated the Court’s jurisdiction at the preliminary stage.

## Decision

- The PCIJ rejected Great Britain’s preliminary objections and affirmed jurisdiction.
- The Court held the dispute related to the interpretation and application of the Mandate because the claim, as pleaded, alleged failures by the Mandatory to comply with Mandate-based obligations concerning the treatment of existing concession rights.
- The Court held there was an inter-state dispute because Greece’s diplomatic protection of its national transformed the controversy into a dispute between States.
- The Court held the existence of treaty rules on concessions (including the Lausanne protocol) did not bar jurisdiction conferred by the Mandate’s compromissory clause.
- The Court treated arguments concerning local remedies as going to admissibility or later stages rather than negating jurisdiction under the Mandate clause.

## Legal Principles

- A State may exercise diplomatic protection by taking up the claim of its national; when it does so through diplomatic action or international adjudication, it asserts its own rights, creating an inter-state dispute.
- A compromissory clause covering disputes concerning the “interpretation or application” of an international instrument extends to disputes about whether an administering authority’s conduct complies with obligations imposed by that instrument.
- The presence of other treaty provisions addressing the same subject matter does not automatically exclude jurisdiction granted by a separate, applicable compromissory clause.
- Questions such as exhaustion of local remedies may affect admissibility or the merits, but do not necessarily defeat jurisdiction where the jurisdictional clause’s subject-matter and party requirements are satisfied.

## Conclusion

The PCIJ held it had jurisdiction under the Palestine Mandate to hear Greece’s claims concerning alleged non-recognition and impairment of a Greek national’s Ottoman-era concessions, concluding that diplomatic protection created an inter-state dispute and that other treaty arrangements and local-remedies objections did not bar jurisdiction at the preliminary stage.


Mavrommatis Palestine Concessions (Greece v. Gr. Brit.), 1924 P.C.I.J. (ser. A) No. 2 (Aug. 30)