Church property again: Christian Baptist Church

The issue of expropriated church property has come up again, this time in Poland.

Background

In Christian Baptist Church in Wrocław v Poland [2018] ECHR 302, the Church applied to the Governor of Wrocław In May 1996 for a decision confirming its ownership of a four-storey building that had previously belonged to it but which had been transferred to the State during the Communist regime. The Governor refused on the grounds that the Church had not fulfilled the requirements of the Relations Between the Republic of Poland and the Christian Baptist Church Act of 30 June 1995, “specifically that it had not possessed the property in question on the day of entry into force of the Act relied upon” [17]. The Church launched further administrative and court proceedings, in June 2007 the Governor of Lower Silesia refused to return the property and in October 2009 the Supreme Administrative Court dismissed the Church’s appeal [46]. Continue reading