In a letter dated July 14, 2021, to Magistrate Judge Rom A. Trader who is presiding over the federal case of Hawaiian Kingdom v. Biden, et al., the Czech Republic’s Deputy Consul General in Los Angeles, Josef Smycek, wrote:

In Case #CV 21-00243LEK-RT (Civil Action No. 1-21-cv-00243), the Honorary Consul of the Czech Republic in Honolulu, Ms. Ann Suzuki Ching, received “Notice of a lawsuit and request to waive service of a summons,” and “Waiver of the service of summons,” both issued by the United States District Court for the District of Hawaii [in Hawaiian Kingdom v. Biden, et al.].

Ms. Ching referred the Notice/Waiver to the Consulate General of the Czech Republic in Los Angeles, her overseeing (career) consulate.

Our Consulate General consulted the Notice/Waiver with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic in Prague.

As a formal response to the Notice/Waiver, the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Washington, DC, issued a Note Verbale to the US Department of State (Note no. 2101-1/2021-Wash of June 30, 2021.

While it is expected that the US Department of State will notify the Court about the contents of said Note Verbale, for the sake of good order, informally, I am attaching a scan of the Note Verbale to this e-email for your reference, in particular ahead of the telephonic hearing of the Case, scheduled for July 19, 2021.

I also wish to inform you that all consular functions of Ms. Ching terminated on June 30, 2021, and the Honorary Consulate of the Czech Republic in Honolulu is temporarily closed.

Thank you in advance for confirming the receipt of this e-mail and of the scan of the Note Verbale in enclosure.

The Czech Republic is a member of the Consular Corps Hawai‘i along with 37 other foreign consulates in Hawai‘i. The closure of the Czech Republic’s Consulate in Hawai‘i was in direct response to paragraphs 99-101 of the Hawaiian Kingdom’s Complaint filed with the U.S. District Court of Hawai‘i on May 20, 2021. In its Complaint, which included the Czech Republic’s Honorary Consulate as a defendant, the Hawaiian Kingdom stated:

“99. The Consular Corps Hawai‘i is comprised of 38 countries, 32 of which are also members of the PCA Administrative Council in The Hague, Netherlands. These countries include, Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand and the United Kingdom via the Australian Consulate.

100. §458 of the Hawaiian Civil Code states, ‘[n]o foreign consul, or consular or commercial agent shall be authorized to act as such, or entitled to recover his fees and perquisites in the courts of this Kingdom, until he shall have received his exequatur.’ These consulates have not presented their credentials to the HAWAIIAN KINGDOM in order to receive exequaturs but rather received their exequaturs from the Defendant UNITED STATES OF AMERICA under the municipal laws of the United States.

101. In diplomatic packages sent to the foreign embassies in Washington, D.C., that maintain consulates in the territory of the HAWAIIAN KINGDOM by DAVID KEANU SAI, as Minister of Foreign Affairs ad interim, on April 15th and 20th of 2021, the Ambassadors were notified that their Consulates ‘within the territory of the Hawaiian Kingdom is by virtue of ‘American municipal laws,’ which stand in violation of Hawaiian sovereignty and independence, and, therefore constitutes an internationally wrongful act.’ The diplomatic note further stated that the ‘Council of Regency acknowledges that [foreign] nationals should be afforded remedial prescriptions regarding defects in their real estate holdings that have resulted from the illegal occupation in accordance with ‘laws and established customs’ of the Hawaiian Kingdom.’ This subject is covered in the Royal Commission of Inquiry’s Preliminary Report re Legal Status of Land Titles throughout the Realm and its Supplemental Report re Title Insurance.’”

The diplomatic packages referred to in paragraph 101 of the Complaint included a letter to the Czech Republic’s Ambassador His Excellency Hynek Kmoníček dated April 20 2021. In its recent filing with the U.S. District Court this past Friday (July 23, 2021), the Hawaiian Kingdom addressed the closing of the Czech Republic’s Consulate by stating:

“The maintenance of Defendant foreign Consulates in the territory of the Hawaiian Kingdom also constitutes acts of belligerency. Regarding the Czech Republic’s recent letter to this Court announcing the temporary closure of its Honorary Consulate in the Hawaiian Kingdom on June 30, 2021, the Hawaiian Kingdom acknowledges this act to be in conformity with Article 30(a) and (b) of Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts (2001), whereby ‘[t]he State responsible for the internationally wrongful act is under an obligation (a) to cease that act, if it is continuing [and] (b) to offer appropriate assurances and guarantees of non-repetition, if circumstances so require.’”