The defendant, a clerk on the staff of the High Commissioner for India, was entitled to diplomatic immunity. He purported to waive his immunity when charged with attempting to obtain a sum of money by false pretences. He was convicted at the County of London Sessions.
Held: The conviction was quashed. There had been no valid waiver of diplomatic immunity and the proceedings had been without jurisdiction and were a nullity. ‘Certain things are, we think, clear. In the first place, it is not for someone who is entitled to diplomatic immunity to claim it . in the courts. It is unnecessary to refer to the authorities, but we think it is clear that proceedings brought against somebody, certainly civil proceedings brought against somebody entitled to diplomatic immunity, are, in fact, proceedings without jurisdiction and null and void, unless and until there is a valid waiver which, as it were, would bring the proceedings to life and give jurisdiction to the court. Moreover, it is clear that that waiver must be a waiver by a person with full knowledge of his rights, and a waiver by or on behalf of the chief representative of the State in question. In other words, it is not the. person entitled to a privilege who may waive it, unless, of course, he does so as agent for or on behalf of the representative of the country concerned; it must be the waiver of the representative of the State.
Judges:
Lord Parker CJ
Citations:
[1961] QB 1
Statutes:
Diplomatic Immunity (Commonwealth Countries & Republic of Ireland) Act 1952
Cited by:
Cited – Aziz v Republic of Yemen CA 17-Jun-2005
The claimant had made a claim for unfair dismissal. The defendant state had filed a defence instead of claiming state immunity. It then sought to assert such immunity. The claimant said the state had waived its immunity.
Held: Section 2(7) of . .
Cited – Augusto Pinochet Ugarte and In the Matter of an Application for Leave To Move for Judicial Review Regina v Evans (Metropolitan Stipendiary Magistrate) Admn 28-Oct-1998
A provisional warrant had been issued by a magistrate for the arrest of the former president of Chile when visting London. The arrest had been in response to an extradition request from a judge in Spain and related to allegations of criminal acts by . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Crime, international
Updated: 30 April 2022; Ref: scu.227919