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EU
In the midst of the 2008 financial crisis, then president of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, infamously said that the EU would do “whatever it takes” to save the euro. It is a shame that the EU cannot say the same for the planet and those who inhabit it.
Diplomatic Immunity: A Lethal Weapon in International Law Eoin Gormley JS Law and Political Science A foreign diplomat isn’t your typical Hollywood villain, but in the 1989 buddy-cop comedy Lethal Weapon 2 LAPD detectives Riggs and Murtagh found out that a foreign representative’s legal superpowers cannot be underestimated. The heroes’ initial attempt to foil a million-dollar drug cartel came to an abrupt halt when they discovered that the ring was run entirely by South African diplomats, immune from prosecution. The chargé d’affaires of the entire South African diplomatic mission, who was also the ringleader of the cartel, sneered at Riggs’ efforts to reprimand him: “My dear officer, you could not even give me a parking ticket.” Whilst the movie’s dramatic gun fights and car chases trivialise the subject somewhat, the second instalment in the Lethal Weapon series nonetheless demonstrates the power of diplomatic immunity. Diplomatic immunity refers to the agreement between countries that foreign representatives of a state are not to be held to the laws of the state in which they are based. It exists to ensure that any diplomat sent as a representative in a foreign country is protected from unjust and politically motivated prosecution. The Vienna Convention Diplomatic immunity has been practised by governments for centuries, but it was the 1961 Vienna Convention on international relations that formalised diplomatic immunity and brought it into the realm of international law. Article 29 of the Convention states that a foreign diplomat “shall not be liable to any form of arrest or detention” and Article 31 states that “[a] diplomatic agent shall enjoy immunity from the criminal jurisdiction of the receiving State.” There are some exceptions, such as actions on private property or actions pertaining to a diplomat’s commercial practices outside of their work as a diplomat. However, in practice, these exceptions are quite limited - meaning that diplomats (and their families) remain virtually unaccountable to the law of the state they operate in. Section 5 of the Diplomatic Relations and Immunities Act 1967 enshrines in Irish law the full provisions of the 1961 Vienna Convention without exception, giving Irish-based diplomats this same freedom. “Immunity is rarely waived” Though this is such a well-established practice in international law, it is not without its controversy. Public outrage is not so much targeted at diplomats avoiding petty offences such as parking fines, but concerns cases in which diplomats have escaped punishment for devastating crimes unrelated to their work. The most recent example of this was the death of nineteen-year-old Harry Dunne in England in August 2019. Anne Sacoolas, the wife of a U.S. diplomat based in the U.K., was driving on the wrong side of the road when she collided with Dunne who was riding his motorcycle at the time. Before she could be charged for dangerous driving, Ms Sacoolas was escorted out of the country on a U.S. Air Force plane. The U.S. government refused to honour the U.K. Government’s extradition request for her, on the grounds of her diplomatic immunity. While Dunne’s parents continue to lobby the U.K. government to take action against Sacoolas and the U.S.
