Execution on an Embassy Bank Account
Execution on an Embassy Bank Account

Summary/Abstract: Recently Polish courts have started to attach bank accounts of foreign embassies for the purpose of enforcement of judgements against embassies of foreign States in e.g. employment cases. The courts have applied the same principle to jurisdictional State immunity and immunity from enforcement and recognized that if state activities giving rise to the claims examined by courts were of private-law character, they are not protected either by jurisdictional or enforcement immunity. This standpoint is contrary to the dominant trend in other states’ practice, confirmed by the International Court of Justice in 2012 (Germany v. Italy: Greece Intervening). While in the field of jurisdictional immunity, the nature of an act as iure imperii or iure gestionis is decisive, in a case of immunity from enforcement – the allocation of the property against which enforcement measures are sought. Embassy bank accounts are generally covered by immunity from enforcement. In this situation Polish courts should develop convincing and exhaustive reasons why it is necessary for the protection of an individual to overrule the ne impediatur legatio principle. The judgements are not sufficiently reasoned and there is no good argument to support this stance. They expose Poland to international liability.

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