Foreign State Immunity in National Courts in Light of Judgement of International Court of Justice in the Case Concerning Jurisdictional Immunity of the State (Germany v. Italy)

On 3 February 2012, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) reached to conclusion in the Jurisdictional Immunity of the State (the case of Germany versus Italy). This recourse as stated by Germany in its application was the only remedy available to Germany in its quest to put a halt to the unlawful practice of the Italian courts, which infringed its sovereign rights by repeatedly disregarding the jurisdictional immunity of Germany as a sovereign State. In this judgement, the ICJ studied several aspects of the customary rule of state immunity and stated that the Italian Republic has violated its obligations to respect the immunity which the Federal Republic of Germany enjoys under international law by allowing civil claims to be brought against it based on violations of international humanitarian law committed by the German Reich, taking measures of constraint against German State property situated in Italian territory (Villa Vigoni) and declaring enforceable in Italy decisions of Greek courts based on violations of international humanitarian law committed in Greece by the German Reich. This article tries to discuss the various aspects of this judgement from a critical viewpoint.