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The judgment of the International Court of Justice on the merits of the Immunities and Criminal Proceedings case (Equatorial Guinea v. France) states a new requirement for a building to acquire the status of premises of a diplomatic mission: the consent of the receiving State. This requirement is not included in any provision of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (VCDR). Moreover, it has not previously emerged in the long and uniform State practice on the matter, since the only requirement to obtain the status has always been the actual use of the premises for the purposes of the diplomatic mission. This paper analyses the judgment of the Court and aims to identify, through the presentation of various arguments, what is the rule for the acquisition of the status defined by Article 1 (i) of the VCDR in current international law. It finally discusses which problems may arise if the interpretation of the Court was followed by future practice.
