International court of justice says Italy's supreme court violated Germany's sovereignty with 2008 ruling on reparation

This article is more than 8 years old

This article is more than 8 years old

The UN's highest court has confirmed that Germany has legal immunity from being sued in foreign courts by victims of Nazi atrocities.

The international court of justice said that Italy's supreme court violated Germany's sovereignty in 2008 by judging that an Italian civilian, Luigi Ferrini, was entitled to reparations for his deportation to Germany in 1944 to work as a slave labourer.

Germany argued that the Italian ruling threw into doubt a restitution system put in place after the Nazis' defeat that has seen Germany pay tens of billions in reparations since the 1950s.

The 15-judge ICJ said in a 12-3 ruling that the Italian case violated Germany's long-standing immunity, which has been recognised in international law.

"The action of Italian courts in denying Germany immunity … constitutes a breach of the obligation owed by the Italian state to Germany," the court president, Hisashi Owada, said.

Rulings by the ICJ are final and binding on states.

German representatives argued last year that if the court sided with Italy, it would open the floodgates for restitution claims by individuals around the world, a situation it tried to avoid in negotiating reparation accords with Israel and with countries that had been occupied during the war, and with specific groups such as the Conference on Jewish Material Claims against Germany.

The ICJ rejected Italy's argument that states' immunity did not apply in cases of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by one country's army on the territory of another country.

Italy's chief representative in the case, Paolo Pucci di Benisichi, said the result helped clarify the limits of states' legal immunity.

"We are not disappointed," he said. "Of course, I would have preferred a judgment that was closer to our line of defence."

He said Rome probably would not have launched the case at all had it not been for the fact that Italians interned by Germany during the war were not included in existing reparation schemes.

The court's judgment noted with "surprise and regret" that Germany had excluded such victims from compensation.

Although Italy was a German ally during the second world war, many Italians were deported by Nazi forces, interned in camps and used as slave labourers.

Rome's case was supported by Greece, whose citizens have similar claims against Germany.