Italy and the Enforcement of Foreign Judgments on Third States’ Tort Liability for Sponsoring Terrorism

Abstract

The present comment deals with the much-debated issue of the denial of foreign States’ jurisdictional immunity for acta iure imperii resulting in serious violations of human rights. This question came to the fore in Italy in the early 2000s and has since led to a stark contrast between the International Court of Justice, on the one hand, and Italian courts, in particular the Constitutional Court, on the other. Against this backdrop, these pages are aimed at analysing Order No. 39391/2021 of the Italian Corte di Cassazione, which concerns a proceeding for the enforcement of a US judgment condemning Iran to pay damages to the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Based on the reasoning of the decision, this comment argues that Italian courts, while praiseworthy for attempting to protect fundamental human rights, seem to have renounced speaking the language of international law.