Can serious Human Rights Violations justify a Breach of State Immunity?

The current legal provisions of international law on why serious human rights violations cannot be brought to domestic courts

Authors

  • Giacomo Sebis Heinrich-Heine University of Düsseldorf

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22151/politikon.29.10

Keywords:

human rights, International Court of Justice, international law, law enforcement, state immunity, violation of human rights

Abstract

Being created to establish a system protecting the individual for a peaceful and safe international environment, human rights often break into smithereens when it comes to individual claims. The lack of a global human rights court and defects in regional systems force many people to bring their claims to domestic courts. But after the ICJ's judgment on Germany vs. Italy of 2012 it is definitely not possible anymore to take a state to a foreign court due to a human rights violation.  Still, this decision has a huge insularity towards the circumstances of the case: The ICJ had to deal with claims of victims of World War II, and in the end the court ruled that no individual human rights violation at all can be enforced before a court of another state. This is not satisfying, because instead of creating a generalized group of forbidden individual claims, it would have been more effective to establish two different case groups: One of forbidden claims of violations during systematical conflicts, and one of possible claims of victims during peaceful times. The paper presented in this abstract deals with the statement given last. It primarily explains the current provisions of international law on how human rights could be claimed before foreign courts and sums up why it would have been more human rights friendly to establish two case groups. It also depicts the case and circumstances of Germany vs. Italy and distinguishes this case from current human rights violations.

Author Biography

Giacomo Sebis, Heinrich-Heine University of Düsseldorf

Giacomo Sebis, 24, from Wuppertal (Germany), Heinrich-Heine-University of Düsseldorf, Undergraduate, currently studying law at the Heinrich-Heine University of Düsseldorf, focusing on International law, International arbitration law and European law. He is planning to finish his studies in 2016 and gaining an LL.M. on international migration and refugee law. Since 2012 he is actively involved in Amnesty International, where he is currently responsible for refugee and political asylum questions in the area of Remscheid, Solingen, Velbert and Wuppertal. He also works as legal research assistant at the law firm Luther in Düsseldorf, involved in the Italian Team responsible for German-Italian economic cases and contacts. His interests include human rights, refugee protection, international law, humanitarian law, economic rights and empowerment as well as international relations.

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Published

2016-03-31

How to Cite

Sebis, Giacomo. 2016. “Can Serious Human Rights Violations Justify a Breach of State Immunity? The Current Legal Provisions of International Law on Why Serious Human Rights Violations Cannot Be Brought to Domestic Courts”. Politikon: The IAPSS Journal of Political Science 29 (March). Online:166-88. https://doi.org/10.22151/politikon.29.10.

Issue

Section

Research articles