STATE IMMUNITY AND THE VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS by JURGEN^ROHMER Europa Institute, UAiversity of Saarland, Saarbriicken, Germany MARTINUS NIJHOFF PUBLISHERS THE HAGUE / BOSTON / LONDON
PREFACE ABBREVIATIONS xiii xv CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1 I. The Problem of State Immunity in General 2 II. State Acts Constituting Torts under Domestic Law 4 III. The Scope and Objective of this Study 7 IV. Reasons for State Immunity 9 1. Overview 9 2. State Immunity and Sovereignty 11 V. History and Development of Sovereign Immunity 14 1. The Origins of the Immunity Concept 14 2. The Absolute Doctrine of Immunity 14 3. The Restrictive Doctrine of Immunity 17 a) General Overview 17 b) Early Developments of a Torts Exception to Immunity 19 4. An Attempt to Explain the Shift 20 VI. Immunity from Adjudication and Immunity from Attachment and Execution 22 VII. State Immunity and Related Immunities and Privileges 24 1. Immunity of International Organisations 24 2. Diplomatic and Consular Immunity 26 3. Immunity of Heads-of-state 29 4. Immunity of States as Occupational Powers 32 VIII. Related Concepts 33 1. Jurisdiction 34 a) The General Concept of Jurisdiction in International Law 34 b) Immunity and Jurisdiction 37 vii
2. The Act-of-State Doctrine 41 a) Scope and Content of the Act-of-State Doctrine 42 b) The Torture Victim Protection Act of 1991 44 3. Immunity and Criminal Jurisdiction 45 4. The Alien Tort Claims Act in the United States 46 CHAPTER 2: THE CURRENT LEGAL SITUATION 51 I. National Statutes on Sovereign Immunity and their Application in Court Practice 51 1. The FSIA of the United States 51 a) General Outline 53 b) Tortious Conduct under the FSIA 58 (1) Torts and the Gestionis/Imperii-Distinction 58 (2) Territorial Nexus and the Relationship Tort-Commercial Activity 60 (a) Frolovav. Union of Soviet Socialist Republics 61 (b) Cases against Iran 62 (c) Nelson v. Saudi Arabia 64 (3) The FSIA and Violations of International Law 68 (a) The FSIAs Expropriation Exception 69 (b) A Genuine Immunity Exception for Human Rights Violations? 74 (aa) Von Dardel v. Union of Soviet Socialist Republics 74 (bb) Hugo Princz v. Federal Republic of Germany 76 c) Evaluation 83 2. The SIA of the United Kingdom 84 a) General Outline 86 b) The Torts Exception 88 c) Human Rights Violations: The Al-Adsani case 93 d) Evaluation 95 3. Australia 96 4. Canada 98 5. Other Countries 100 a) Argentina 100 b) Singapore 102 c) South Africa 102 d) Pakistan 103 via
II. Jurisprudence in Countries without Immunity Statutes 103 1. Germany 104 a) General Outline 104 b) Immunity and Torts 105 c) Evaluation 108 2. France 109 a) General Outline 109 b) Immunity and Torts 110 c) Evaluation Ill 3. Other Countries Ill a) Austria Ill b) Switzerland 115 c) Italy 116 d) Spain 117 III. The European Convention on State Immunity 119 IV. Other Conventions and Treaties 121 V. Draft Proposals for Multilateral Conventions 125 1. The International Law Commission 125 a) General Outline 126 b) The Torts Exception 127 c) Evaluation 128 2. The International Law Association 128 a) General Outline of the ILA's 1982 Montreal Draft as Revised in Buenos Aires 1994 129 b) The Torts Exception 130 (l)art. IIIFMD 131 (2) Art. Ill G MD 132 c) Evaluation 133 3. The Basel Draft of the Institut de Droit International 133 a) General Outline 133 b)the Torts Exception 135 c) Evaluation 136 4. The Inter-American Draft Convention on Jurisdictional Immunity of States 136 a) General Outline 137 b) The Torts Exception 137 c) Evaluation 138 ix
VI. Conclusion 138 CHAPTER 3: DEVELOPING THE CASE AGAINST IMMUNITY ^143 I. The Protection of Individuals in International Law 144 1. The Treatment of Aliens 144 2. Fundamental Human Rights as Jus cogens 145 3. The Individual as a Subject of International Law 148 4. Direct Applicability of International Law 148 II. Practical Effects of the Increased Significance of Human Rights and the Individual in other Areas of International Law 150 1. Diplomatic Protection 150 a) Function and Scope 151 b) The Principles of Nationality and Exhaustion of Local Remedies 153 c) Conclusion 158 2. The European Convention on Human Rights 160 a) Introduction 160 b) General Remarks on the Scope and Procedure of the ECHR... 160 c) The ECHR and State Immunity 163 (1) Introduction 163 (2) The Relationship Between State Immunity and the ECHR in Theory and Practice 163 (a) Literature 164 (b) Practice 166 (3) Evaluation 170 d) The Relationship between the ECHR and State Immunity: A Proposal 171 (1) Art. 13 ECHR 171 (a) The Interpretation of Art. 13 in General 171 (b)art. 13 Inherently Limited? C. 174 (c) The Nationality of the Authority called upon in Art. 13 ECHR 175 (d) Conclusion 177 (2) Art. 6 ECHR 178 (a) The Right of Access to a Court 178 (b) The Meaning of "Civil Rights and Obligations" 182 (c) Fair Trial and Equality of Arms 185 (3) Result 186
III. Conclusion 188 CHAPTER 4: RECONCILING HUMAN RIGHTS AND STATE IMMUNITY 189 I. Solutions Proposed by Other Authors 189 1. "Implied Waiver" of Immunity for Violations of International Law? 190 2. Restricting Immunity as a "Reprisal" 192 3. "Forfeiture" of Sovereign Rights 194 4. Reimann's Proposal in the Wake of the PrinczCase 194 II. An Attempt to Reevaluate Fundamental Individual Interests and Collective Sovereignty Interests 196 1. Again: State Immunity and Sovereignty 196 a) Option and Risk Calculability as Criteria to Distinguish Between Immune and Non-Immune Conduct 197 b) The Optional Element in the Context of Human Rights Violations 199 c) Risk Calculability in the Context of Human Rights Violations.201 d) Conclusion.. 203 2. Different Solutions for Different Types of Human Rights Violations? 204 a) The Relationship Between the Nature and Quantity of the Human Rights Violations and State Immunity 205 b) Conclusion and Application to Specific Cases 208 c) Possible Solutions for Borderline Cases 211 d) Proposal for a Draft Article on an Exception to Immunity from Adjudication in Cases Involving Violations of Jus Cogens Human Rights 214 SUMMARY 217 BIBLIOGRAPHY 225 INDEX 239 XI