Acceso usuarios
Tullio Scovazzi
By the judgement of 23 November 2024, the Seoul High Court (Republic of K orea), rejecting the defendant’s claim to sovereign immunity, found that Japan is bound to pay compensation to sixteen former “comfort women” or their heirs. The Court relied on the so-called “tort exception”, according to which State immunity is excluded for torts committed against nationals of the forum State within its territory, r egardless of whether the act is considered as a sovereign act or not. The Korean decision strengthens the present trend towards r estricting State immunity in cases where war crimes are committed, which is confirmed by domestic judgments rendered also in other States (Italy, Br azil, Ukraine).
However, it does not address the more r adical criticism to the 2012 judgment of the International Court of Justice in the Jurisdictional immunities of the Statecase, that is the disregard for the jus cogensnature of rules on the protection of fundamental human rights, as e xplained in the opinions of dissenting ICJ jud
