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PUBLIC INTERNATIONAL LAW: I. IMMUNITY AND INTERNATIONAL CRIMES IN ENGLISH LAW

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 January 2008

Abstract

The texts of two brief judgments by district judges at Bow Street are reproduced below. In each case, an application was made for proceedings against a serving foreign official to answer allegations in England of conduct which constituted crimes against international law which were within the jurisdiction of the English court, even though committed abroad and by non-UK nationals. In each case, the judge decided that the official was protected by the law of State immunity rationae personae against the proceedings and the applications were dismissed.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © British Institute of International and Comparative Law 2004

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References

2 ‘Tatchell asks court to issue arrest warrant for Mugabe’ The Guardian, 8 Jan 2004.Google Scholar

3 R v Bow Street Metropolitan Stipendiary Magistrate, ex p Pinochet Ugarte [1997] 2 All ER 97.Google Scholar

4 For serving heads of State, see also Gadqffi, , France, Court of Cassation, 13 Mar 2001, 125 ILR 456.Google Scholar

5 See also Habre, , Senegal, Court of Cassation, 20 Mar 2001, 125 ILR 528.Google Scholar

6 Case concerning the Arrest Warrant of 11 April 2000 (Democratic Republic of the Congo v Belgium) ICJ, General List No 121, 14 Feb 2002.Google ScholarSee McLachlan, CPinochet Revisited’ (2002) 51 ICLQ 959.Google Scholar

7 It might perhaps be wondered how the applicant had standing to make the application for the issue of an extradition warrant. Even if the warrant had been issued, the question of immunity would, no doubt, have been raised again in any State where the warrant was sought to be executed.Google Scholar

8 ‘British solicitor instructed to pursue complaints, particularly against Shaul Mofaz’ <http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article839.shtml>..>Google Scholar

9 ‘Israelis warned against arrest for war crimes’ Daily Telegraph, 27 July 2001.Google Scholar

11 Above n 6.Google Scholar

12 Sharon's ally safe from arrest in BritainThe Guardian, 11 Feb 2004.Google Scholar