Sitting in Judgment on the Acts of Another Government

Abstract

In the October, 1947, number of this Journal there was printed the judgment, or as we should say in the United States, the opinion, of the Court of Appeal of England in Szalatnay-Stacho v. Fink. In the following number, that for January, 1948, there appeared an editorial comment on that case by Mr. Arthur K. Kuhn. The present writer begs leave to present certain additional reasons and precedents bearing upon the problem arising in the Fink case, namely, whether and to what degree an official of, or person working under, a government in exile, or an officer or employee of any foreign government, exercising his functions in another country with its consent, is liable to prosecution or suit in the courts of that country on account of his official acts. Though the governments in exile have returned home or ceased to operate, in the event of another war the phenomenon may recur. In any event, the increasing volume and complexity of international relations and the constantly closer ties between friendly nations make probable an increase in the number of officials of one country functioning permanently or temporarily in another with the latter's permission. Among these may be economic, financial, scientific, and military representatives, and all sorts of officers conferring or working with their “opposite numbers” in the host country. A detailed examination of the subject therefore seems timely.