The Treaty of Peace (Italy) Order 1948

Article 79

1.  Each of the Allied and Associated Powers shall have the right to seize, retain, liquidate or take any other action with respect to all property, rights and interests which on the coming into force of the present Treaty are within its territory and belong to Italy or to Italian nationals, and to apply such property or the proceeds thereof to such purposes as it may desire, within the limits of its claims and those of its nationals against Italy or Italian nationals, including debts, other than claims fully satisfied under other Articles of the present Treaty. All Italian property, or the proceeds thereof, in excess of the amount of such claims, shall be returned.

2.  The liquidation and disposition of Italian property shall be carried out in accordance with the law of the Allied or Associated Power concerned. The Italian owner shall have no rights with respect to such property except those which may be given him by that law.

3.  The Italian Government undertakes to compensenate Italian nationals whose property is taken under this Article and not returned to them.

4.  No obligation is created by this Article on any Allied or Associated Power to return industrial property to the Italian Government or Italian nationals, or to include such property in determining the amounts which may be retained under paragraph 1 of this Article. The Government of each of the Allied and Associated Powers shall have the right to impose such limitations, conditions and restrictions on rights or interests with respect to industrial property in the territory of that Allied or Associated Power acquired prior to the coming into force of the present Treaty by the Government or nationals of Italy, as may be deemed by the Government of the Allied or Associated Power to be necessary in the national interest.

5.—(a) Italian submarine cables connecting points in Yugoslavia shall be deemed to be Italian property in Yugoslavia, despite the fact that lengths of these cables may lie outside the territorial waters of Yugoslavia.

(b) Italian submarine cables connecting a point in the territory of an Allied or Associated Power with a point in Italian territory shall be deemed to be Italian property within the meaning of this Article so far as concerns the terminal facilities and the length of cables lying within territorial waters of that Allied or Associated Power.

6.  The property covered by paragraph 1 of this Article shall be deemed to include Italian property which has been subject to control by reason of a state of war existing between Italy and the Allied or Associated Power having jurisdiction over the property, but shall not include:

(a) Property of the Italian Government used for consular or diplomatic purposes;

(b) Property belonging to religious bodies or private charitable institutions and used exclusively for religious or charitable purposes;

(c) Property of natural persons who are Italian nationals permitted to reside within the territory of the country in which the property is located or to reside elsewhere in United Nations territory, other than Italian property which at any time during the war was subjected to measures not generally applicable to the property of Italian nationals resident in the same territory;

(d) Property rights arising since the resumption of trade and financial relations between the Allied and Associated Powers and Italy, or arising out of transactions between the Government of any Allied or Associated Power and Italy since September 3, 1943;

(e) Literary and artistic property rights;

(f) Property in ceded territories of Italian nationals, to which the provisions of Annex XIV shall apply;

(g) With the exception of the assets indicated in Article 74, part A, paragraph 2(b) and part D, paragraph 1, property of natural persons residing in ceded territories or in the Free Territory of Trieste who do not opt for Italian nationality under the present Treaty, and property of corporations or associations having siège social in ceded territories or in the Free Territory of Trieste, provided that such corporations or associations are not owned or controlled by persons in Italy. In the cases provided under Article 74, part A, paragraph 2(b) , and part D, paragraph 1, the question of compensation will be dealt with under Article 74, part E.