Československá vláda v exilu

  • Czechoslovak Government-in-Exile
  • Československá exilová vláda
Identifier
001408
Dates
1940-1945
Type of Entity
Corporate Body

Dates of Existence

    1. 1940 - 5. 4. 1945

History

The Czechoslovak Government-in-Exile (known also as the Provisional Government of Czechoslovakia) was accepted by the British Government after the Nazi occupation of France in 1940. It continued in the political effort of the former Czechoslovak official authority known as the Czech National Liberation Committee (set up in France in 1939) to reverse the Munich Agreement and the subsequent German occupation of Czechoslovakia, and to return the Republic to its 1937 boundaries.

The Czechoslovak Government-in-Exile consisted of the President, the Goverment and the State Council (which represented the Czechoslovak parliament). Edvard Beneš, the former President of the Czechoslovak Republic and one of the leaders of the resistance during the WW I was accepted as the President of the Czechoslovak Government-in-Exile and Msgre. Jan Šrámek (the chairman of one of the former Czechoslovak political parties) was appointed as the Prime minister.

The Czechoslovak Government-in-Exile consisted of 7 ministries:

  • Ministry of National Defence (Minister general Sergej Ingr)
  • Ministry of Interior (Minister Juraj Slávik)
  • Ministry of Justice (Minister Jaroslav Stránský)
  • Ministry of Finance (Minister Eduard Outrata)
  • Ministry of Social Welfare (Minister František Němec)
  • MInistry of Economic Recovery (Minister Jaromír Nečas)
  • Ministry of Agriculture (Minister Ján Lichner)

The State Council had 40 members (maximum) and it was an advisory and an inspecting board of the President and the Government.

One of the main aims was reached in the summer 1942 when after the Assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in Prague Britain and Free France (itself a Government-in-Exile) formally repudiated the Munich Agreement, thus conferring de jure the legitimacy of the Beneš government as the continuing political representation of the pre-1938 Czechoslovak Republic.

The Provisional Government of Czechoslovakia existed till 4 April 1945.

Places

  • France, Great Britain

Rules and Conventions

EHRI Guidelines for Description v.1.0

Sources

  • Talmon, Stefan: Recognition of Governments in International Law with particular reference to governments in exile. Oxford University Press. 1998.