Some 50 claims for compensation from Germany in connection with World War II are currently pending before the Italian courts. The German Government therefore intends to commence proceedings against Italy before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague.
This was confirmed by Jens Plötner, the Federal Foreign Office Spokesman. The Government's aim is to prevent the principle of state immunity, a cornerstone of international law, from being undermined.
On 21 October, the Italian Court of Cassation, the country's supreme court, confirmed a lower court's ruling that Germany must pay damages equalling roughly 1 million euro in reparation for a massacre committed by German soldiers in June 1944 in which more than 200 civilians were killed.
Some 50 individual and class actions in which the plaintiffs claim damages from Germany in connection with the Second World War are already pending in Italy. Some cases concern Italian military internees who were held as prisoners of war in Germany and subjected to forced labour in Germany. Other cases have been brought by the victims of German war crimes in Italy or their descendants.
Jens Plötner stated that the Federal Government will bring a case against Italy before the ICJ: "It is our opinion that the proceedings in Italy violate a key principle of international law ¨C that of state immunity."
According to the principle of state immunity, no state may be sued before the courts of another country on the basis of its sovereign acts. Nor may court judgements be enforced against it. This principle derives from the sovereign equality of states: no state is above another, no state can sit in judgement on another. State immunity is a key principle regulating the relations between states.
 Bild vergrößern Hearing at the ICJ (dpa/picture-alliance)
Clarification is in the interest of all states
The aim is not, said Plötner, to play down past acts of incontestable injustice. Immeasurable suffering was inflicted on large numbers of people, also in Italy, by Germans and in Germany's name.
However, continued Plötner, the Federal Government is of the opinion that the clarification of this issue by the International Court of Justice is not only in Germany's interest, but also in the interest of the community of states as a whole. The material consequences of war have regularly been settled in peace treaties between the states involved. Reparations are paid by one state to another. It is up to the receiving state to distribute the monies obtained to the aggrieved individuals.
Without the principle of state immunity, it would be practically impossible after a conflict to re-establish lasting peace, to resume dialogue and restore trust. Peace agreements and compensation packages are only concluded by states because they know that state immunity applies and that such measures therefore give rise to legal certainty.
Italy conclusively waived all claims for reparation in the peace treaty it signed with the Allies in 1947, and reaffirmed this position in a bilateral agreement with Germany in 1961. Germany nonetheless made reparations to Italy on the basis of its historical responsibility. It paid 40 million DM to Italy in connection with the so-called "Global Agreement" of 1961.
Close dialogue with the Italian Government
The Federal Government, said Plötner, was further considering how it could live up to its enduring moral responsibility under the current circumstances and express it in political terms. To this end, it was in close contact with the Italian Government.
The German and Italian Governments are pursuing a "very good dialogue based on trust", reported Plötner. The Federal Government seeks to continue this close cooperation.
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