Grand Chamber – The applicant alleged that he had been deprived of his right of access to a court as a result of the immunity from jurisdiction upheld by the domestic courts.
This was a claim for unfair dismissal, brought before the French courts by the head of the accounts department of the Kuwaiti embassy in Paris. The final decision of the French courts was to bar the claim on grounds of state immunity and was handed down after the adoption of the United Nations Convention.
Held: The Court reiterated the principle on which the Strasbourg court had always held article 6 to be engaged in such cases, and summarised the case law: ‘Therefore, in cases where the application of the rule of state immunity from jurisdiction restricts the exercise of the right of access to a court, the Court must ascertain whether the circumstances of the case justified such restriction.
The Court further reiterates that such limitation must pursue a legitimate aim and that state immunity was developed in international law out of the principle par in parem non habet imperium, by virtue of which one state could not be subject to the jurisdiction of another. It has taken the view that the grant of immunity to a state in civil proceedings pursues the legitimate aim of complying with international law to promote comity and good relations between states through the respect of another state’s sovereignty.’
Judges:
Nicolas Bratza, P
Citations:
34869/05, [2011] ECHR 1055, [2011] IRLR 781, (2012) 54 EHRR 14
Links:
Statutes:
European Convention on Human Rights
Jurisdiction:
Human Rights
Cited by:
Cited – Reyes and Another v Al-Malki and Another CA 5-Feb-2015
The claimants wished to make employment law claims alleging, inter alia, that they had suffered racial discrimination and harassment, and had been paid less than the national minimum wage aganst the respondents. They had been assessed as having been . .
Cited – Belhaj and Another v Straw and Others SC 17-Jan-2017
The claimant alleged complicity by the defendant, (now former) Foreign Secretary, in his mistreatment by the US while held in Libya. He also alleged involvement in his unlawful abduction and removal to Libya, from which had had fled for political . .
Cited – Benkharbouche v Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs SC 18-Oct-2017
The court was asked as to the compatibility of provisions in the 1978 Act with the human rights of the appellant. The claimants, Moroccan nationals were employed as domestic staff in embassies in London. They alleged both race discrimination and . .
Cited – Sabeh El Leil v France ECHR 1-Jul-2015
Execution of the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Human Rights
Updated: 07 September 2022; Ref: scu.441480