Immunity Ratione Personae of Foreign Government Officials and Other Topics: The Sixty-Fifth Session of the International Law Commission. Issue 1 (January 2014) - Murphy, Sean D.
Abstract : The International Law Commission held its sixty-fifth session in Geneva from May 6 to June 7, and from July 8 to August 9, 2013, under the chairmanship of Bernd H. Niehaus (Costa Rica). The Commission devoted most of the sixty-fifth session to discussing three topics: immunity of state officials from foreign criminal jurisdiction, subsequent agreements and subsequent practice in relation to the interpretation of treaties, and protection of persons in the event of disasters. Notably, the Commission provisionally adopted three draft articles and commentaries identifying three categories of senior governmental officials—heads of state, heads of government, and foreign ministers—as entitled to immunity ratione personae from foreign criminal jurisdiction for their public or private acts, an immunity that ceases once they leave office.