Judgment No. 238 – 2014 (IT. Const. Ct.)

2015 ◽  
Vol 54 (3) ◽  
pp. 471-506
Author(s):  
Alessandro Chechi
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
Legal Order ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
International Court Of Justice ◽  
State Immunity ◽  
Court Of Justice ◽  
International Court ◽  
Constitutional Legitimacy

On October 22, 2014, the Italian Constitutional Court rendered a decision on the constitutional legitimacy of certain domestic norms that required Italy’s compliance with the rule on state immunity sanctioned by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) with the Judgment Jurisdictional Immunities of the State (Germany v. Italy: Greece Intervening). The Constitutional Court declared that the international customary obligations on state immunity from jurisdiction can be applied automatically within the Italian legal order only as long as they are in conformity with the fundamental rights contained in the Constitution.

I. INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE: JURISDICTIONAL IMMUNITIES OF THE STATE (GERMANY v ITALY) JUDGMENT OF 3 FEBRUARY 2012

2013 ◽  
Vol 62 (3) ◽  
pp. 741-752
Author(s):  
J Craig Barker
Keyword(s):  
Armed Forces ◽  
The State ◽  
International Court Of Justice ◽  
State Immunity ◽  
German Armed Forces ◽  
Court Of Justice ◽  
International Court ◽  
Compensation Claims ◽  
Vexed Question ◽  
German Reich

The vexed question of State immunity and the extent and application thereof has once again found its way to the International Court of Justice (the Court) in the form of the Case Concerning Jurisdictional Immunities of the State (Germany v Italy).1 On this occasion, the precise question concerned the so-called ‘territorial tort exception’ to State immunity and involved an assessment of the immunity to be granted to Germany, by Italy, in relation to compensation claims brought in Italy by Italian claimants against German armed forces and the organs of the German Reich during the Second World War.2

scholarly journals State Immunity Before the International Court of Justice: Jurisdictional Immunities of the State (Germany v Italy)

2013 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew McMenamin
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
The State ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
International Court Of Justice ◽  
State Immunity ◽  
German Armed Forces ◽  
Court Of Justice ◽  
International Court ◽  
Jus Cogens

The International Court of Justice recently gave judgment in Jurisdictional Immunities of the State. The case concerned German state immunity from civil claims brought in Italian courts by victims of serious violations of international humanitarian law committed by German armed forces during World War II. The Court offered a valuable clarification of the relationship between state immunity and jus cogens norms at customary international law. The conservative reasoning was thorough and extensive and the decision is likely to ossify the evolution of state immunity.

scholarly journals A Story of ‘Trials and Errors’ That Might Have No Happy End

2021 ◽  
pp. 119-142
Author(s):  
Jörg Luther†
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
International Court Of Justice ◽  
State Immunity ◽  
International Court ◽  
The Icj ◽  
Forced Labour ◽  
To Come

AbstractThe International Court of Justice (ICJ) and Italian Constitutional Court (ItCC) have created a deadlock between two diverging res iudicatae on state immunities and judicial remedies as well as a tension between two republics that do not share the same constitutional and international identities. In order to avoid a further spiralling of decisions, judges tried to promote the negotiation of ‘a happy outcome’ for a category of victims of war crimes that risk dying without being entitled to any compensation. This chapter analyses the general cultural context of ‘academic diplomacy’. Both state sovereignty and human solidarity could be maintained through a voluntary compensation for moral damages to the victims of massacres, deportation, and forced labour during World War II. The moral-responsibility approach suggested by the ICJ could be stronger than the legal-liability threat backed by the ItCC. A belated common solidarity funded by both German and Italian citizens and employers could be the best way out, but considering that many of the now elderly victims are approaching the end of their lifespans, it might be cynically too late. This could, paradoxically, help to remind the world of the injustices they suffered. Yet, on grounds of this tragic end, state immunity and fundamental rights might further be delegitimized in possible wars to come.

State Immunity Against Claims Arising from War Crimes: The Judgment of the International Court of Justice inJurisdictional Immunities of the State

2012 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 773-782 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Christoph Bornkamm
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
The State ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
International Court Of Justice ◽  
Legal Proceedings ◽  
State Immunity ◽  
Court Of Justice ◽  
European Court ◽  
International Court

The recent judgment of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in theCase Concerning Jurisdictional Immunities of the State(Germany v. Italy; Greece Intervening) marks the climax of a series of legal proceedings before Greek, Italian, and German courts, as well as the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) stretching over a period of more than fifteen years. The international community had eagerly awaited the ICJ's findings on the issue at the heart of the dispute, namely the scope of state immunity before foreign courts in cases concerning claims arising from serious violations of international humanitarian law. While most expected the Court to rule in favor of Germany and to uphold state immunity in principle, it was unclear whether the Court would acknowledge the increasing erosion of immunity with respect to serious violations of human rights or international humanitarian law. To the disappointment of many, the Court took a conservative approach and rejected the idea of an emerging exception from state immunity.

Is There State Immunity in Cases of War Crimes Committed in the Forum State? On the Decision of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) of 3 February 2012 inJurisdictional Immunities of the State (Germany v. Italy: Greece Intervening)

2013 ◽  
Vol 14 (9) ◽  
pp. 1817-1850 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hermann-Josef Blanke ◽  
Lara Falkenberg
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
War Crimes ◽  
The State ◽  
Federal Republic Of Germany ◽  
International Court Of Justice ◽  
State Immunity ◽  
Court Of Justice ◽  
International Court ◽  
The Icj ◽  
Compensation Claims

On 3 February 2012, in a case brought by the Federal Republic of Germany against Italy, the ICJ decided that state immunity protects the state against compensation claims even in cases of extreme violations of human rights. With this ruling, the court established a provisional conclusion to the question of possible exceptions to state immunity in respect of jurisdictional immunity of the state and constraint measures in civil claims. This question has repeatedly arisen in recent years not only in international and European cases, but also in other national cases.

Germany v Italy: The Triumph of Sovereign Immunity over Human Rights Law

2012 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-109
Author(s):  
Onder Bakircioglu
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Sovereign Immunity ◽  
International Court Of Justice ◽  
International Crimes ◽  
State Immunity ◽  
Court Of Justice ◽  
International Court ◽  
Judicial Proceedings ◽  
Jus Cogens

This article analyses the doctrine of State immunity within the context of the recent judgment of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) concerning the Jurisdictional Immunities of the State (Germany v Italy: Greece intervening). The object of this article is to explore the implications of the State immunity from foreign judicial proceedings in cases of jus cogens crimes. Challenging the assumption that the law of immunity is merely procedural in nature, this article argues that there can be no immunity in cases of undisputed international crimes.

Sovereign Immunity v. Redress for War Crimes: The Judgment of the International Court of Justice in the Case Concerning Jurisdictional Immunities of the State (Germany v. Italy)

2014 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 123-137
Author(s):  
Stefania Negri
Keyword(s):  
War Crimes ◽  
The State ◽  
Customary Law ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Sovereign Immunity ◽  
International Court Of Justice ◽  
State Immunity ◽  
Court Of Justice ◽  
International Court ◽  
Peremptory Norms

Abstract In the judgment delivered in the case concerning Jurisdictional Immunities of the State (Germany v. Italy), the International Court of Justice held that under the present state of international customary law State immunity encompasses all acta jure imperii, regardless of whether they are unlawful. Following the ruling that States are entitled to jurisdictional immunities before foreign courts even if their sovereign acts amount to violations of peremptory norms, the Court found that Italy had violated Germany’s immunity from jurisdiction and enforcement. In rendering such a conservative judgment, the Court missed a double opportunity: to contribute to the development of international law by interpreting the rule on sovereign immunity in harmony with international human rights law and its dynamics, and to finally serve justice for the victims of war crimes.

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