Acceso usuarios
Andreas Bucher
Based on the judgement rendered by the International Court of Justice in the case of Jurisdictional Immunities of the State on the 3rd February 2012, it would seem that state immunity constitues an absolute bar to access to justice before a foreign court even when international crimes are at stake. While the judgement appears as a piece of logic and strong legal reasoning, it provides little focus on the relation between state immunity and the fundamental right of reparation of the victims of the most horrible crimes that are hurting today's sense of humanity. Too much has been said about a purported priority of rules of a jus cogens nature over state immunity. What is critical in this debate and has received little attention by the Court is the crucial question whether the state's protection of its immunity can go so far as to deprive the victims of any access to justice, as this was the case for the Italian forced labor workers and their descendants, as well as for the victims of the masacre committed by German army forces in the village of Distomo in Greece.
