Public Prosecutor v Zwitsersche Waschinrichting

• Jurisdiction: Holanda
• Docket Number: Case No. 220
• Date: 30 Junio 1934
• Court: Cantonal Court (Netherlands)

Holland, Cantonal Court of The Hague.

Case No. 220

Public Prosecutor

and

Managing Director of N. V. Zwitsersche Waschinrichting.

Treaties — Operation of — Absence of Penal Provisions Implementing a Convention Ratified by the Legislature — Article 28 of the Geneva Convention of 1929 — Effect of Treaty — Absence of Executory Municipal Provisions.

War in General — Treatment of Wounded — Article 28 of the Geneva Convention of 1929 — Abuse of the Red Cross Emblem — Abuse of Swiss National Flag — Effect of Treaty — Absence of Executory Municipal Provisions.

The Facts.—Article 28 of the Geneva Convention of July 27, 1929, provided as follows:

“The Governments of the High Contracting Parties whose legislation is not at present adequate for the purpose, shall adopt or propose to their legislatures the measures necessary to prevent at all times:

“(a) The use of the emblem or designation ‘Red Cross’ or ‘Geneva Cross’ by private individuals or associations, firms or companies, other than those entitled thereto under the present Convention, as well as the use of any sign or designation constituting an imitation, for commercial or any other purposes;

“(b) By reason of the compliment paid to Switzerland by the adoption of the reversed federal colours, the use by private individuals or associations, firms or companies of the arms of the Swiss Confederation, or marks constituting an imitation, whether as trade-marks or as parts of such marks, for a purpose contrary to commercial honesty, or in circumstances capable of wounding Swiss national sentiment.

“The prohibition indicated in (a) of the use of marks or designations constituting an imitation of the emblem or designation of ‘Red Cross’ or ‘Geneva Cross,’ as well as the prohibition in (b) of the use of the arms of the Swiss Confederation or marks constituting an imitation, shall take effect as from the date fixed...