Claim against Foreign Embassy Case

• Jurisdiction: Croacia
• Date: 30 August 1956
• Court: Supreme Court (Croatia)

Yugoslavia, Supreme Court of the People's Republic of Croatia.

Claim against Foreign Embassy Case.

Jurisdiction — Territorial — Exemptions from — Foreign States — Embassy as Representing Foreign State — Absence of jus standi in judicio.

Diplomatic Immunities — Immunities of Envoys — Immunity of Embassy from Jurisdiction — Position of Embassy as Representing Sending State — Absence of Jus Standi in Judicio.

The Facts.—The plaintiff in this case was knocked down by a motor-car owned by the Military Mission of a foreign Embassy in Belgrade. He sued the Embassy for damages for injuries sustained in the accident. The District Court of Zagreb dismissed the claim on the ground that diplomatic missions of foreign States were “granted territoriality” and were exempt from the jurisdiction of the municipal courts unless they voluntarily submitted to the jurisdiction, which had not been done in this case.

On appeal,

Held: that the appeal must fail. A foreign embassy was not a juridical person and could not be sued; the real defendant in this case was therefore the foreign State which the Embassy represented. Foreign States were entitled to immunity from jurisdiction unless they voluntarily submitted to it, which the foreign State in question had not done.

The Court said: “In the present case the defendant is a foreign Embassy in the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia and consequently a diplomatic representative of a foreign State. However, embassies and other diplomatic agencies in our country cannot be regarded as juridical persons. They have no jus standi in judicio. Embassies and other diplomatic agencies are only representatives of foreign States, and only such foreign States [not their representatives] may be parties in judicial proceedings … Therefore, in the present case the real defendant is not the Embassy of the foreign State, it is the foreign State which the Embassy represents.

“International practice shows that States enjoy before foreign courts so-called ‘jurisdictional immunity’, i.e., a State cannot be subjected to the jurisdiction of a foreign court without its consent. It is considered that...