Points of law

The decision admits the immunity from civil jurisdiction only for foreign States when they act as sovereign bodies and not when they act as private subjects.

Summary of the case

The decision rejects the exception raised by the US Government, according to which it would not be possible to distinguish between public and private relations in the exercise of a typically sovereign activity, such as the organisation and maintenance of troops.

The 1951 London Convention confirmed a customary international law principle, based on which foreign States are exempt from jurisdiction only with reference to acts being the expression of a concrete exercise of their sovereignty, i.e. private law acts. In fact, in Article IX, paragraph 4, the Convention expressly reaffirmed the principle according to which working and employment relations concluded between the armed forces or a civil body of a member State of the Atlantic Alliance and a private citizen of the host State are governed by the legislation in force in the hosting State. As a consequence, the Contracting Parties to the Convention, and therefore the United States of America too, accepted the recognition of the private law nature of working relations concluded with Italian citizens.

Sources

Italian Yearbook of International Law, 1977, 338

Additional information (explanations, notes, etc.)

London Convention of 19 June 1951 (NATO-SOFA Convention)