The controversy dates back to 2008, when Germany took Italy to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for allowing the latter’s courts to decide whether Germany should compensate Nazi war crimes victims.
Germany filed a case against Italy at the United Nations International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, on Friday, April 29, for continuing to allow entities to file claims against Germany in Italian courts for compensation for war crimes committed by the Nazi Third Reich during World War II.
Germany has brought Italy to the Hague twice in the same case. It said in its present application that Italy breached the International Court of Justice’s 2012 judgement protecting Germany’s jurisdictional immunity.
Germany asserts in a petition to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that Italy continues to accept proceedings in its domestic courts despite a 2012 judgement declaring such claims unenforceable. It states that over 25 fresh lawsuits have been filed in Italy following that judgement. In some of the cases, the courts concluded that Germany should compensate the victims. Berlin says it is filing the lawsuit now in light of two pending instances in which German state-owned properties in Rome might be confiscated to cover compensation payments.
A court in Italy has scheduled a hearing for 25 May to determine whether to compel the sale of specific buildings, some of which house German cultural, historical, and educational institutions.
The controversy extends all the way back to 2008, when Italy’s top court determined that Germany should pay almost €1 million (£840,000) to relatives of nine persons murdered in 1944 by German soldiers in Tuscany.
Germany asserts that it has already compensated nations harmed by World War II with billions of dollars since the fighting ended in 1945.
Its lawsuit cites a section of the 2012 judgement that states that by permitting the claims in its courts, Italy “violated its commitment to preserve the immunity granted to the Federal Republic of Germany by international law.”
The International Court of Justice can take years to rule, but Germany has urged the court to halt Italy from auctioning any land while its bigger case is reviewed.
The International Court of Justice, headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands, is the UN’s major judicial organisation, with one of its core responsibilities being the arbitration of legal disputes between nations.
Published by: Diwakar Kumar
Edited by: Aaradhana Singh
