Rome, 8 February 2016 The Joint Chambers of the Italian Supreme Court issued a new sentence, which had already been implicit in customary international law. The Discipline on labour relations for the employees of Embassies, Consulates, Legations, Institutes of Culture and International Organizations in Italy, drawn up in 2003, provided a measure on a sensitive issue, by updating the distribution of competences between hosting and hosted states.
In the case of foreign Embassies’ employees in Italy, indeed, it seems that a litigation only concerning differences in remuneration should be judged by an Italian court. This would happen not only for auxiliary or additional workers, but also for employees with Consular functions, as long as the claims to the Italian courts only regard property and remuneration and, above all, they do not affect or interfere at all with the functions of the Sovereign State.
There are three requirements that need to be met to avoid the immunity from jurisdiction, namely:
1. Employees with auxiliary or consular functions;
2. The claims only concern property and remuneration;
3. The claims do not affect or damage the Sovereign State.
Already in the past, however, the Joint Chambers had taken a step forward by rejecting the thesis of a widespread immunity in their proceedings, and by following the principle of the restricted or relative immunity.
As mentioned in the beginning, this principle, which better fits a rapidly and constantly evolving Diplomacy, is in accordance both with the Italian interpretation of the Convention on Diplomatic Relations (1961) and Consular Relations (1963) and with the customary international law. Thereby, the exemption of foreign States from civil jurisdiction is limited to iure imperio acts – regarding public acts performed by state servants – and does not extend to iure gestionis acts – which are private acts performed by state servants and state organizations.
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