“5. The promulgation of laws, ordinances and other legal announcements and the execution of administrative measures and legal judgments shall be annulled if the Reich Protector enters an objection.” (2119-PS)
At the very outset of the Protectorate, von Neurath’s supreme authority was implemented by a series of basic decrees. These established the alleged legal foundation for the policy and program which resulted, all aimed toward the systematic destruction of the national integrity of the Czechs. Among these decrees were:
(1) The decree granting “Racial Germans” in Czechoslovakia a supreme order of citizenship (2119-PS);
(2) An act concerning the representation in the Reichstag of Greater Germany of German Nationals Resident in the Protectorate (13 April 1939);
(3) An order concerning the acquisition of German citizenship by former Czechoslovakian citizens of German origin (20 April 1939).
Another series of decrees granted “Racial Germans” in Czechoslovakia a preferred status at law and in the courts:
(1) An order concerning the Exercise of Criminal Jurisdiction in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (14 April 1939);
(2) An order concerning the Exercise of Jurisdiction in Civil Proceedings (14 April 1939);
(3) An order concerning the Exercise of Military Jurisdiction (8 May 1939).
The Ordinance on Legislation in the Protectorate (7 June 1939) also granted to the Protector broad powers to change by decree the autonomous law of the Protectorate.