State immunity – ICJ judgment in Ferrini Cover Image

Immunitety państwa – orzeczenie MTS w sprawie Ferrini
State immunity – ICJ judgment in Ferrini

Author(s): Marcin Menkes
Subject(s): Law, Constitution, Jurisprudence
Published by: Instytut Nauk Prawnych PAN
Keywords: state immunity; International Court of Justice; Republic of Italy; Federal Republic of Germany

Summary/Abstract: On February 2010 International Court of Justice decided that an Italian appeals court sentence Ferrini violated jurisdictional immunity of Germany, to which it is entitled in respect of acts de iure imperii. Adopting a restrictive approach Judges stated that procedural nature of the immunity shall be viewed separately from substantive provisions, according to which conduct of German armed forced had been qualified as war crimes. Accordingly enjoying protection of jurisdictional immunities does not, at the current stage of international law development, contradict protection of fundamental rights. This narrow perception of the problem and certain inconsistencies in legal reasoning between the Court and its judges will probably diminish importance of the judgment as a point of referral in further debates concerning the scope and nature of the jurisdictional immunities. At the same time complex factual and legal context of the proceedings allows to conjecture at to the reasons behind such a ruling.

  • Issue Year: 191/2012
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 33-65
  • Page Count: 33
  • Language: Polish
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