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2022 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

4. State Immunity or State Impunity in Cases of Jus Cogens Violations

Author : Selman Özdan

Published in: The Human Rights Challenge to Immunity in International Law

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

This chapter conducts a general examination of State immunity under international law, charting its progress and explaining its rise within the international order, and offers new considerations as to the basis of State immunity. Additionally, it explores the transition from absolute to restrictive immunity with reference to the increasing tension between State immunity and human rights. It analyses the tension between the violation of certain human rights and the preservation of State immunity by considering a landmark judgement by the International Court of Justice (Jurisdictional Immunities of the State—Germany v. Italy). At the heart of this chapter lies a significant argument: State immunity (procedural rule) should not equate to State impunity when certain human rights recognised as jus cogens norms (substantive rule) are violated.

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previous chapter Human Rights Recognised as Jus Cogens

next chapter A Critique of the Demise of Heads of State Immunity in the Age of Human Rights

Gerry Simpson, Great Powers and Outlaw States: Unequal Sovereigns in the International Legal Order (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 11.

‘In public international law, the principle that one sovereign power cannot exercise jurisdiction over another sovereign power’. Elizabeth A. Martin, A Dictionary of Law, 7th ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), 393.

Ilias Bantekas and Susan Nash, International Criminal Law, 3rd ed. (Oxon: Routledge-Cavendish, 2007), 96.

Hazel Fox QC and Philippa Webb, The Law of State Immunity, 3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), 3.

Jurisdictional Immunities of the State (Germany v. Italy: Greece Intervening), Judgment, ICJ Reports 99 (2012).

Xiaodong Yang, State Immunity in International Law (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), 48.

I Congreso del Partido, 1 A.C. 244 (House of Lords 1983) at 262.

Yang, State Immunity in International Law, 58.

Jürgen Bröhmer, State Immunity and the Violation of Human Rights (The Hague, Boston and London: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1997), 14.

Malcolm N. Shaw, International Law, 7th ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014), 509.

Prefecture of Voiotia v. Federal Republic of Germany (Distomo Massacre Case), 129 ILR 513 (Greece—Court of Cassation 2000) at 516.

Hazel Fox, ‘In Defence of State Immunity: Why the UN: Convention on State Immunity Is Important’, International and Comparative Law Quarterly 55, no. 02 (2006): 403.

Lee M. Caplan, ‘State Immunity, Human Rights, and Jus Cogens: A Critique of the Normative Hierarchy Theory’, American Journal of International Law 97, no. 4 (2003): 755.

Edwin DeWitt Dickinson, The Equality of States in International Law (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1920), 106.

Council of Europe, ‘European Convention on State Immunity, Explanatory Report’, ETS 074 (1972), 5.

The Schooner Exchange v. McFaddon & Others, 11 U.S. (7 Cranch) 116 (Supreme Court of the United States 1812).

Eileen Denza, ‘The 2005 UN Convention on State Immunity in Perspective’, International and Comparative Law Quarterly 55, no. 2 (2006): 395–98.

Yang, State Immunity in International Law, 26.

Peter Malanczuk, Akehurst’s Modern Introduction to International Law, 7th ed. (London: Routledge, 1997), 118.

This UN Convention was adopted on 2 December 2004 but has not yet come into force.

See Ernest K. Bankas, The State Immunity Controversy in International Law: Private Suits Against Sovereign States in Domestic Courts (Berlin: Springer, 2005), 308; Malanczuk, Akehurst’s Modern Introduction to International Law, 129.

Fox QC and Webb, The Law of State Immunity, 11.

R v. Bow Street Metropolitan Stipendiary Magistrate and Others, ex parte Pinochet Ugarte (No. 3), 1 A.C. 147 (House of Lords 2000) at 201.

Gamal Moursi Badr, State Immunity: An Analytical and Prognostic View (Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1984), 9–10.

James T. Bretzke, Consecrated Phrases A Latin Theological Dictionary: Latin Expressions Commonly Found in Theological Writings, 3rd ed. (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2013), 132.

Yang, State Immunity in International Law, 44.

The date of this case is relevant, because it happened during the War of 1812 between the USA and the British Empire. France was an ally of the United States.

Yang, State Immunity in International Law, 45.

The Schooner Exchange v. McFaddon & Others, 11 U.S. (7 Cranch) 116 at 137.

Victory Transport Incorporated v. Comisaria General de Abastecimientos y Transportes, 336 F.2d 354 (US Court of Appeals Second Circuit 1964) at 357.

UN General Assembly, ‘United Nations Convention on Jurisdictional Immunities of States and Their Property’, A/RES/59/38 (2004) Article 5.

Fox, ‘In Defence of State Immunity’, 405.

Shaw, International Law, 507.

Shaw, 509.

Claim Against the Empire of Iran, 45 ILR 57 (German Constitutional Court 1963) at 61.

Absolute immunity ‘was granted in an age when the distinction between sovereign and non-sovereign activities was less manifest, given that State functions were at that time confined to the traditional spheres of, say, legislation, administration, national defence, and the conduct of State-to-State political relations and that […] it was possible and natural to regard “State” activities as synonymous with “sovereign” activities’. Yang, State Immunity in International Law, 8.

Theodore R. Giuttari, The American Law of Sovereign Immunity: An Analysis of Legal Interpretation (New York: Praeger Publishers, 1970), 3.

Adam C. Belsky, Mark Merva, and Naomi Roht-Arriaza, ‘Implied Waiver under the FSIA: A Proposed Exception to Immunity for Violations of Peremptory Norms of International Law’, California Law Review 77, no. 2 (1989): 379.

The Schooner Exchange v. McFaddon & Others, 11 U.S. (7 Cranch) 116 at 136.

The Schooner Exchange v. McFaddon & Others, 11 U.S. (7 Cranch) 116 at 137.

Sompong Sucharitkul, Immunities of Foreign States before National Authorities, Collected Courses of the Hague Academy of International Law 149 (Leiden, 1976), 117.

The Cristina, A.C. 485 (House of Lords 1938) at 490-491.

Fox QC and Webb, The Law of State Immunity, 137.

Fox QC and Webb, 137.

The Schooner Exchange v. McFaddon & Others, 11 U.S. (7 Cranch) 116 at 137.

The Schooner Exchange v. McFaddon & Others, 11 U.S. (7 Cranch) 116 at 138.

The Schooner Exchange v. McFaddon & Others, 11 U.S. (7 Cranch) 116 at 139.

Bankas, The State Immunity Controversy in International Law, 19.

Thora A. Johnson, ‘A Violation of Jus Cogens Norms as an Implicit Waiver of Immunity Under the Federal Sovereign Immunities Act’, Maryland Journal of International Law 19, no. 2 (1995): 259–91.

Philip C Jessup, ‘Competence of Courts in Regard to Foreign States’, The American Journal of International Law 26, no. 1: Supplement Codification of International Law (1932): 473–74.

The Philippine Admiral, A.C. 373 (Privy Council 1977) at 397.

Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, 28 U.S.C. §§ 1602-1611 (1976) § 1604.

Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act §§ 1605 and 1605A [Emphasis Added].

See the Singapore State Immunity Act (1979); the South African Foreign States Immunities Act (1981); the Pakistan State Immunity Ordinance (1981); the Canadian State Immunity Act (1982); the Australian Foreign States Immunities Act (1985); and the United Nations Convention on Jurisdictional immunities of States and Their Property (2004) article 5, which does not apply to criminal proceedings because it is not in force yet; see Shaw, International Law, 513–14. For the China exception see Joanne Foakes, ‘State Immunity: Recent Developments and Prospects’, Chatham House Briefing Paper, December 2013, 4.

Legislative acts, internal administrative acts, diplomatic activities, acts concerning the armed forces, public loans that are deemed political, and public acts enjoy sovereign immunity under the restrictive theory of sovereign immunity. Shaw, International Law, 514.

UN General Assembly, United Nations Convention on Jurisdictional Immunities of States and Their Property Article 5.

Shaw, International Law, 509–10.

Jurisdictional Immunities of the State (Germany v. Italy: Greece Intervening), Judgment, ICJ Reports at 115–16; Prefecture of Voiotia v. Federal Republic of Germany (Distomo Massacre Case), 129 ILR 513.

Prefecture of Voiotia v. Federal Republic of Germany (Distomo Massacre Case), 129 ILR 513 at 516.

Charles Fairman, ‘Some Disputed Applications of the Principle of State Immunity’, American Journal of International Law 22, no. 3 (1928): 571.

UN General Assembly, United Nations Convention on Jurisdictional Immunities of States and Their Property Article 12; European Convention takes very similar approach to the UN Convention. See Council of Europe, ‘European Convention on State Immunity’, ETS 074 (1972) Article 11.

Rosanne van Alebeek, The Immunity of States and Their Officials in International Criminal Law and International Human Rights Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), 68–69.

Christian Tomuschat, ‘Reconceptualizing the Debate on Jus Cogens and Obligations Erga Omnes: Concluding Observations’, in The Fundamental Rules of the International Legal Order: Jus Cogens and Obligations Erga Omnes, ed. Christian Tomuschat and Jean Marc Thouvenin (Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2006), 433.

See Alexander Orakhelashvili, ‘State Immunity and Hierarchy of Norms: Why the House of Lords Got It Wrong’, European Journal of International Law 18, no. 5 (2007): 964.

International Law Commission, ‘Draft Articles on Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts, with Commentaries’, in Yearbook of the International Law Commission, vol. II, part 2 (New York: United Nations, 2001), 85.

Alebeek, The Immunity of States and Their Officials in International Criminal Law and International Human Rights Law, 316.

Selman Özdan, ‘State Immunity or State Impunity in Cases of Violations of Human Rights Recognised as Jus Cogens Norms’, The International Journal of Human Rights 23, no. 9 (2019): 1525.

Jurisdictional Immunities of the State (Germany v. Italy: Greece Intervening), Judgment, ICJ Reports.

Jurisdictional Immunities of the State (Germany v. Italy: Greece Intervening), Judgment, ICJ Reports at para 37.

Jurisdictional Immunities of the State (Germany v. Italy: Greece Intervening), Judgment, ICJ Reports at para 62.

Jurisdictional Immunities of the State (Germany v. Italy: Greece Intervening), Judgment, ICJ Reports at paras 62-79.

See Jurisdictional Immunities of the State (Germany v. Italy: Greece Intervening), Judgment, ICJ Reports at para 83.

Jurisdictional Immunities of the State (Germany v. Italy: Greece Intervening), Judgment, ICJ Reports at paras 84-90.

Jurisdictional Immunities of the State (Germany v. Italy: Greece Intervening), Judgment, ICJ Reports at para 56.

Jurisdictional Immunities of the State (Germany v. Italy: Greece Intervening), Judgment, ICJ Reports at paras 92-93.

Jurisdictional Immunities of the State (Germany v. Italy: Greece Intervening), Judgment, ICJ Reports at para 93.

Jurisdictional Immunities of the State (Germany v. Italy: Greece Intervening), Judgment, ICJ Reports at paras 92-94-97.

Hazel Fox, The Law of State Immunity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), 525.

Özdan, ‘State Immunity or State Impunity in Cases of Violations of Human Rights Recognised as Jus Cogens Norms’, 1529.

Özdan, 1529.

Jurisdictional Immunities of the State (Germany v. Italy: Greece Intervening), Judgment, ICJ Reports at para 98.

Jurisdictional Immunities of the State (Germany v. Italy: Greece Intervening), Judgment, ICJ Reports at para 101.

Jurisdictional Immunities of the State (Germany v. Italy: Greece Intervening), Judgment, ICJ Reports at para 94.

Jurisdictional Immunities of the State (Germany v. Italy: Greece Intervening), Judgment, ICJ Reports at para 106.

Judge Antônio Augusto Cançado Trindade, The Construction of a Humanized International Law: A Collection of Individual Opinions (1991-2013) (Leiden: Brill Nijhoff and Hotei Publishing, 2015), 1500.

Alexander Orakhelashvili, ‘Immunities of State Officials, International Crimes, and Foreign Domestic Courts: A Reply to Dapo Akande and Sangeeta Shah’, European Journal of International Law 22, no. 3 (2011): 852.

Orakhelashvili, 852.

International Law Commission, ‘Draft Articles on Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts, with Commentaries’, 112–14.

Özdan, ‘State Immunity or State Impunity in Cases of Violations of Human Rights Recognised as Jus Cogens Norms’, 1531.

Al-Adsani v. The United Kingdom, Judgment, Application No 35763/97 (ECtHR 21 November 2001) at paras 9-13.

Al-Adsani v. The United Kingdom, Judgment at para 14.

Al-Adsani v. The United Kingdom, Judgment at para 66.

See the Joint Dissenting Opinion to the Al-Adsani v. The United Kingdom, Judgment at 29–30.

The term ex officio refers to ‘some right an individual has because of the office she or he occupies’. Bretzke, Consecrated Phrases A Latin Theological Dictionary: Latin Expressions Commonly Found in Theological Writings, 76.

See the Joint Dissenting Opinion to the Al-Adsani v. The United Kingdom, Judgment at 30.

See the Dissenting Opinion of Judge Trindade to the Jurisdictional Immunities of the State (Germany v. Italy: Greece Intervening), Judgment, ICJ Reports at 197.

Xiaodong Yang, ‘State Immunity in the European Court of Human Rights: Reaffirmations and Misconceptions’, British Yearbook of International Law 74, no. 1 (2004): 343.

100

Yang, 345.

101

Recta ratio, in Latin, refers to right reason. Bretzke, Consecrated Phrases A Latin Theological Dictionary: Latin Expressions Commonly Found in Theological Writings, 206–7.

102

See the Dissenting Opinion of Judge Trindade to the Jurisdictional Immunities of the State (Germany v. Italy: Greece Intervening), Judgment, ICJ Reports at 186.

103

See Helmut Philipp Aust, Complicity and the Law of State Responsibility (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), 37; Multi-member Court of Levadia, Judgment, 137/1997 (1997).

104

See the Dissenting Opinion of Judge Yusuf to the Jurisdictional Immunities of the State (Germany v. Italy: Greece Intervening), Judgment, ICJ Reports at 298.

105

See the Dissenting Opinion of Judge Trindade to the Jurisdictional Immunities of the State (Germany v. Italy: Greece Intervening), Judgment, ICJ Reports at 288.

106

Delicta imperii refers to ‘wrong of the sovereign’. ‘A crime under international law committed by a sovereign State’. Aaron X. Fellmeth and Maurice Horwitz, Guide to Latin in International Law, 2nd ed. (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2021).

107

See the Dissenting Opinion of Judge Trindade to the Jurisdictional Immunities of the State (Germany v. Italy: Greece Intervening), Judgment, ICJ Reports at 288.

Al-Adsani v. The United Kingdom, Judgment, Application No 35763/97 (ECtHR 21 November 2001).

Alebeek, Rosanne van. The Immunity of States and Their Officials in International Criminal Law and International Human Rights Law. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.CrossRef

Aust, Helmut Philipp. Complicity and the Law of State Responsibility. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011.CrossRef

Badr, Gamal Moursi. State Immunity: An Analytical and Prognostic View. Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1984.CrossRef

Bankas, Ernest K. The State Immunity Controversy in International Law: Private Suits Against Sovereign States in Domestic Courts. Berlin: Springer, 2005.

Bantekas, Ilias, and Susan Nash. International Criminal Law. 3rd ed. Oxon: Routledge-Cavendish, 2007.

Belsky, Adam C., Mark Merva, and Naomi Roht-Arriaza. ‘Implied Waiver under the FSIA: A Proposed Exception to Immunity for Violations of Peremptory Norms of International Law’. California Law Review 77, no. 2 (1989): 365–415.CrossRef

Bretzke, James T. Consecrated Phrases a Latin Theological Dictionary: Latin Expressions Commonly Found in Theological Writings. 3rd ed. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2013.

Bröhmer, Jürgen. State Immunity and the Violation of Human Rights. The Hague, Boston and London: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1997.CrossRef

Caplan, Lee M. ‘State Immunity, Human Rights, and Jus Cogens: A Critique of the Normative Hierarchy Theory’. American Journal of International Law 97, no. 4 (2003): 741–81.CrossRef

Claim Against the Empire of Iran, 45 ILR 57 (German Constitutional Court 1963).

Council of Europe. European Convention on State Immunity, ETS 074 (1972a).

———. European Convention on State Immunity. European Convention on State Immunity, Explanatory Report, ETS 074 (1972b).

Denza, Eileen. ‘The 2005 UN Convention on State Immunity in Perspective’. International and Comparative Law Quarterly 55, no. 2 (2006): 395–98.CrossRef

Dickinson, Edwin DeWitt. The Equality of States in International Law. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1920.CrossRef

Fairman, Charles. ‘Some Disputed Applications of the Principle of State Immunity’. American Journal of International Law 22, no. 3 (1928): 566–89.CrossRef

Fellmeth, Aaron X., and Maurice Horwitz. Guide to Latin in International Law. 2nd ed. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2021.

Foakes, Joanne. ‘State Immunity: Recent Developments and Prospects’. Chatham House Briefing Paper, December 2013.

Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, 28 U.S.C. §§ 1602–1611 (1976).

Fox, Hazel. ‘In Defence of State Immunity: Why the UN: Convention on State Immunity Is Important’. International and Comparative Law Quarterly 55, no. 02 (2006): 399–406.CrossRef

———. The Law of State Immunity. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.

Fox QC, Hazel, and Philippa Webb. The Law of State Immunity. 3rd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.

Giuttari, Theodore R. The American Law of Sovereign Immunity: An Analysis of Legal Interpretation. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1970.

I Congreso del Partido, 1 A.C. 244 (House of Lords 1983).

International Law Commission. ‘Draft Articles on Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts, with Commentaries’. In Yearbook of the International Law Commission, Vol. II, part 2. New York: United Nations, 2001.

Jessup, Philip C. ‘Competence of Courts in Regard to Foreign States’. The American Journal of International Law 26, no. 1: Supplement Codification of International Law (1932): 451–738.

Johnson, Thora A. ‘A Violation of Jus Cogens Norms as an Implicit Waiver of Immunity Under the Federal Sovereign Immunities Act’. Maryland Journal of International Law 19, no. 2 (1995): 259–91.

Jurisdictional Immunities of the State (Germany v. Italy: Greece Intervening), Judgment, ICJ Reports 99 (2012).

Malanczuk, Peter. Akehurst’s Modern Introduction to International Law. 7th ed. London: Routledge, 1997.

Martin, Elizabeth A. A Dictionary of Law. 7th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.

Multi-member Court of Levadia, Judgment, 137/1997 (1997).

Orakhelashvili, Alexander. ‘Immunities of State Officials, International Crimes, and Foreign Domestic Courts: A Reply to Dapo Akande and Sangeeta Shah’. European Journal of International Law 22, no. 3 (2011): 849–55.CrossRef

———. ‘State Immunity and Hierarchy of Norms: Why the House of Lords Got It Wrong’. European Journal of International Law 18, no. 5 (2007): 955–70.

Özdan, Selman. ‘State Immunity or State Impunity in Cases of Violations of Human Rights Recognised as Jus Cogens Norms’. The International Journal of Human Rights 23, no. 9 (2019): 1521–45.CrossRef

Prefecture of Voiotia v. Federal Republic of Germany (Distomo Massacre Case), 129 ILR 513 (Greece—Court of Cassation 2000).

R v. Bow Street Metropolitan Stipendiary Magistrate and Others, ex parte Pinochet Ugarte (No. 3), 1 A.C. 147 (House of Lords 2000).

Shaw, Malcolm N. International Law. 7th ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014.

Simpson, Gerry. Great Powers and Outlaw States: Unequal Sovereigns in the International Legal Order. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.CrossRef

Sucharitkul, Sompong. Immunities of Foreign States before National Authorities. Collected Courses of the Hague Academy of International Law 149. Leiden, 1976.

The Cristina, A.C. 485 (House of Lords 1938).

The Philippine Admiral, A.C. 373 (Privy Council 1977).

The Schooner Exchange v. McFaddon & Others, 11 U.S. (7 Cranch) 116 (Supreme Court of the United States 1812).

Tomuschat, Christian. ‘Reconceptualizing the Debate on Jus Cogens and Obligations Erga Omnes: Concluding Observations’. In The Fundamental Rules of the International Legal Order: Jus Cogens and Obligations Erga Omnes, edited by Christian Tomuschat and Jean Marc Thouvenin, 425–36. Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2006.CrossRef

Trindade, Judge Antônio Augusto Cançado. The Construction of a Humanized International Law: A Collection of Individual Opinions (1991–2013). Leiden: Brill Nijhoff and Hotei Publishing, 2015.

UN General Assembly. United Nations Convention on Jurisdictional Immunities of States and Their Property, A/RES/59/38 (2004).

Victory Transport Incorporated v. Comisaria General de Abastecimientos y Transportes, 336 F.2d 354 (US Court of Appeals Second Circuit 1964).

Yang, Xiaodong. State Immunity in International Law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012.CrossRef

———. ‘State Immunity in the European Court of Human Rights: Reaffirmations and Misconceptions’. British Yearbook of International Law 74, no. 1 (2004): 333–408.

Title: State Immunity or State Impunity in Cases of Jus Cogens Violations
Author: Selman Özdan
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Book: The Human Rights Challenge to Immunity in International Law
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-92922-0

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-030-92923-7

Copyright Year: 2022
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-92923-7_4

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