The UN’s highest court ordered Italy Friday to annul all compensation claims against Germany for Nazi war crimes, saying Rome breached international laws when its courts allowed the claims to be made. The Italian republic “violated its obligations to respect the immunity which Germany enjoys under international law by allowing civil claims based on violations committed by the German Reich between 1943 and 1945,” ICJ judge Hisashi Owada told a public hearing. “The Italian republic must, by enacting appropriate legislation, or by… other methods, ensure the decisions of its courts infringing the immunity which Germany enjoys under international law cease to have effect.”
The two European Union members have been locked in a legal battle since December 2008, when Germany filed an application before the ICJ after an avalanche of lawsuits by Italian relatives and widows for abuses by Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich. The cases sought compensation for deportations of Italians and other acts by German troops in Italy after Rome quit the Axis and joined the Allies in September 1943. Berlin said that by permitting claims for abuses that occurred between September 1943 and May 1945, Italy “failed to respect the jurisdictional immunity” that modern-day Germany enjoys under international law.
