Decision of the Court of Cassation, United Sections, No. 9097 of 24 March 2015

With this decision the Court of Cassation (United Sections) declared inadmissible an application filed by the Federal Republic of Germany to obtain that an earlier decision of the Court be revoked. Through this decision, the Court of Cassation declared enforceable in Italy a judgment issued by a Greek Court, which sentenced Germany to pay compensation for damages suffered by Greek nationals in consequence of World War II war crimes. Germany grounded its application for revocation on the ruling of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the case Jurisdictional Immunities of the State (Germany v. Italy, 2012), and on Article 3 of law No. 5/2003 (Accession by Italy to the UN Convention on the Immunities of the States and their Property), both establishing a duty of Italian courts to decline to exercise their competence in any proceedings brought against Germany. The inadmissibility of the application derived, however, from decision No. 238 of 2014 of the Italian Constitutional Court, which declared non enforceable in Italy the ICJ decision, and void Article 3 of law No. 5/2003 because of their incompatibility with the supreme principles of the Italian legal order concerning the protection of inalienable human rights and the right of the individuals to have access to justice.