Friday, February 03, 2012

Blog 3: World Court Upholds German Immunity in Nazi Cases

In this piece by Mike Corder for the Associated Press, the World Court finally handed down its decision regarding reparations for Luigi Ferrini.  Ferrini, an Italian citizen, won a case in the Italian Supreme Court against the German government.  The Italian Supreme Court ruled that the German government had to pay reparations to Ferrini for his deportation and subsequent slave labor in Germany during WWII.    Germany had already paid out reparations to other nations for the damage to citizens, but Italy was not one of the countries which Germany agreed to pay reparations.  The issue came down to an argument of state immunity.  The Italians argued that states were not immune from paying reparations to citizens in cases of war crimes and crimes against humanity in occupied territories.  However, Germany argued that such a finding would open the flood gates and destroy state immunity.  The World Court sided with the Germans but the World Court representatives noted that they were surprised and regretted the fact that Germany did not include abducted Italian slave laborers in their reparations schemes.


This ruling served to clarify the World Court's position on state immunity in the face of war crimes and crimes against humanity, to the detriment of furthering the cause of a codified human rights system.  State sovereignty is still a keystone of our world system, and it appears that yet again the successful prosecution (particularly in civil cases) of human rights violations between states remains a secondary concern to the world's highest judicial body.  The lawyers for Ferrini were not asking for an open door to prosecute civil cases across soverign state lines, only to make an exception for extreme cases of human rights abuses.  What is the point of the World Court if state immunity can not be waived under these severe circumstances?  While I am certain this was a difficult ruling for the World Court officials, it certainly is a blow to the victims of human rights abuses in Italy during WWII and a set back to the human rights advocacy community.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_WORLD_COURT_GERMANY_ITALY?SITE=CASRP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

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