Ciniglio v Indonesian Embassy

• Jurisdiction: Italia
• Date: 16 Dicembre 1966
• Court: Examining Magistrate (Italy)

Italy, Examining Magistrate (Pretore) of Rome.

Ciniglio

and

Indonesian Embassy and Compagnia di Assicurazioni Intercontinentali

Sovereign immunity Foreign States and their agencies Embassy of foreign State Claim arising from road accident Whether foreign State entitled to jurisdictional immunity Acts iure imperii and iure gestionis Whether embassy or ambassador of foreign State have independent legal capacity to be sued in municipal courts The law of Italy

Summary: The facts:Ciniglio, an Italian national, sued the Indonesian Embassy in Rome and an insurance company, the Compagnia di Assicurazioni Intercontinentali, claiming compensation for the damage caused to his car by a car belonging to the Embassy. Whilst the Indonesian Embassy defaulted, the Insurance Company objected that Italian courts lacked jurisdiction over the matter as the issue involved a foreign embassy.

Held:Indonesia was not entitled to jurisdictional immunity but the claim was dismissed because it had been brought against the Indonesian Embassy rather than the Indonesian State.

(1) Where a foreign State engaged in activities of a purely private nature on an equal footing with private citizens and quite independently of its sovereign power, it was subject to the Italian legal system and not entitled to jurisdictional immunity.

(2) In matters regarding road traffic and civil responsibility for related matters, foreign States and their legitimate representatives acted iure privalorum. Nor could it be otherwise since it was impossible to invest the use of a means of transport with the character of a public act or the exercise of the power of supremacy.

(3) Both the embassy and the ambassador of a foreign State were merely organs of the sending State and could not be summonsed separately or individually without reference to the ties linking them to their State of origin.

The following is the text of the relevant part of the judgment of the Court:

It is well known that the immunity from jurisdiction enjoyed by foreign States, which in accordance with Art. 10 of the Constitution[1] must be respected by the Italian legal system, is confined to activities

of a public nature in which those States engage, involving relations which are totally extraneous to the Italian legal system either because those States are acting as subjects of international law or because they exercise supreme authority within the legal order of which they are bearers in their sovereign capacity.

If, on the other hand, the...