University of Baltimore Law Forum Volume 7 Article 12 Number 2 January, 1977 1-1977 Diplomatic Immunity from Local Jurisdiction Eugene M. Zoglio Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarworks.law.ubalt.edu/lf Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Zoglio, Eugene M. (1977) "Diplomatic Immunity from Local Jurisdiction," University of Baltimore Law Forum: Vol. 7 : No. 2 , Article 12. Available at: http://scholarworks.law.ubalt.edu/lf/vol7/iss2/12 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@University of Baltimore School of Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in University of Baltimore Law Forum by an authorized editor of ScholarWorks@University of Baltimore School of Law. For more information, please contact [email protected]. the Commission requested the Mary­ internships have also been set up with been acquiesced in by states for the pur­ land Attorney General's Office to study several local colleges. pose of attaining certain desired ends. the Maryland Annotated Code to de­ Under the present structure, each of There are several theories devised dur­ termine which laws, if any, might be af­ the twenty-four Commissioners either ing successive periods of political fected by the Equal Rights Amendment. heads a task force or works on a commit­ thought for the purpose of achieving a This study continues today. tee which focuses on a particular issue of settlement of cases in accordance with The Commission recognized that the importance to women. Present issues the then existing and desired institutions. law was the most effective means of at­ being dealt with include credit, continu­ Many of the precepts which we have in­ tacking sex discrimination. Commission­ ing education, employment, legislation, herited from the past are descended ers began testifying at legislative hear­ rape, Title IX (sex discrimination in edu­ from theories and doctrines which no ings, particularly in the area of employ­ cation), and history. Public conferences longer conform to factual conditions to­ ment discrimination. One group of as well as production and distribution of day. These archaic precepts, still re­ employees seen as victimized by handbooks continue. peated in treatises and judicial opinions, employment discrimination was In the past year, the Commission's are responsible for the conflicting views household workers. The Commission name was changed to the Maryland as to the law which should govern a cur­ decided that these workers should at Commission for Women. This name rent situation. (Montell Ogdon, Basis of least be entitled to the minimum wage, change was decided upon because a Diplomatic Immunity, 8-9.) and by 1974 both Maryland and the new direction is perceived for the pres­ federal government agreed. After Mary­ ent Commission: "Now, we're becom­ II land enacted its wage law, the Commis­ ing more actively concerned with and sion published The Picture Is Changing ready to work for women in Maryland." While numerous juristic theories have (which is now available in Spanish, as Decade, at 4. The future, then, is ac­ been advanced to justify the extension of well as in English) to educate both tivism. diplomatic privileges and immunities, household workers and heads of writers have consistently turned to one households. With the Commission's of three traditional theories to explain work and support, household workers Diplomatic this practice. also became eligible for workmen's The first is the theory of personal rep­ compensation benefits under a 1975 Immunity resenation. Under this theory the dip­ state law. lomatic agent is the personification of his Another booklet, Know Your Rights, from Local ruler or of a sovereign state whose inde­ was published in 1973. This booklet dis­ pendence must be respected. This cussed consumer laws, employment Jurisdiction theory dates back to the Greek city­ rights, labor laws, marriage and divorce, states and gained widespread accep­ Medicare, property rights of women, so­ tance during the Rennaissance when cial security, unemployment insurance, by Eugene M. Zoglio diplomacy was dynastically oriented. and workmen's compensation. Sovereigns of this period were extremely The list of accomplishments of the sensitive to the affronts or insults ac­ Commission is indeed long. Many con­ Diplomatic immunity may be broadly corded their diplomatic representatives. ferences have been set up, educational defined as the freedom from local juris­ The envoys were considered the repre­ courses have been offered, legal equality diction accorded under international law sentative character of their sovereign, has been secured - all with the aid of by the receiving state to duly accredited entitled to the same honors to which the the Commission. diplomatic officers, their families, and sovereign would be entitled if he were servants. Associated with such immunity personally present. In England and the is the inviolability which applies to the United States in the eighteenth and THE PRESENT AND BEYOND premises of embassies and legations and nineteenth centuries the Chief Justice in Today the Commission is headed by the residences of duly accredited dip­ both countries in rulings relative to the Shoshana S. Cardin, who became lomatic officers. Diplomatic immunity is inviolability of the diplomatic representa­ chairwoman after Ms. Boucher's resig­ a universally recognized principal of in­ tive made statements, to wit, "The dip­ nation in 1974. Under Ms. Cardin, the ternational law, which civilized nations lomat is to be left at liberty to devote variety of projects continues to thrive. In have accepted as binding them in their himself body and soul to the business of late 1974, a new project began in con­ intercourse with one another. his embassy. He does not owe even a junction with the University of Baltimore International law in relation to dip­ temporary allegiance to the sovereign to School of Law, in which student interns lomatic immunity is the result of usages whom he is accredited, and he has at analyze and present reports on bills be­ and customs which have developed dur­ least as great a privilege from suit as the fore the General Assembly that will di­ ing the ages. The law of diplomatic im­ sovereign he represents" and "The per­ rectly or potentially affect women. Other munity, like all international law, has son of a public minister is sacred and in- violable. Whoever offers any violence to importance since the Second World War 31 of the Vienna Convention on Dip­ him, not only affronts the sovereign he and one very important reason is the ex­ lomatic Relations. Under Article 31, a represents, but also hurts the common pansion in the size of missions. Another diplomatic agent shall enjoy immunity safety and well-being of nations; he is reason for its acceptance is the increase from the criminal jurisdiction of the re­ guilty of a crime against the whole in the number of international organiza­ ceiving state and will also enjoy immu­ world." (Clifton E. Wilson, Diplomatic tions since World War II, which has re­ nity from its civil jurisdiction except in the Privileges and Immunities, 2-3.) quired the granting of immunities to ad­ case of: (a) a real action relating to pri­ It was in this milieu that the Act of Ann ditional persons. Since such organiza­ vate immovable property situated in the was passed by the British Parliament in tions are without territory or repre­ territory of the receiving state, unless he 1708, and Sections 252-254 of Title 22 sentational status, only the theory of holds it on behalf of the sending state for of the United States Code were passed in functional necessity adequately explains the purposes of the mission; (b) an 1790. Those statutes and relative Court this development. (Wilson, 21.) action relating to succession in which the decisions gave the diplomatic ministers, diplomatic agent is involved as executor, their families, and employees the III administrator, heir or legatee as a private broadest extension of privileges and Legislation providing for jurisdictional person and not on behalf of the sending immunities. immunities in the United States is copied state; (c) an action relating to any profes­ The second theory to justify the exten­ after the British mode. The pertinent sional or commercial activity exercised sion of diplomatic immunity is the theory laws provide immunity from criminal by the diplomatic agent in the receiving of exterritoriality. Under this theory and civil jurisdiction. 22 U.Sc. 252,253, state outside his official functions. which began in the fifteenth century 254. The Vienna Convention of 1961 when countries began maintaining per­ provides for absolute criminal immunity IV manent missions in foreign states, the and modified civil immunity. The United While a substantial body of diplomatic diplomat was not considered to be sub­ States became a signatory to this Con­ rules, based on reciprocity, is available to ject to local law because he does not re­ vention on December 13, 1972. Title guide the conduct of nations in their legal side in the host country since the dip­ 22, Section 252, tells us any writ or pro­ and political treatment of foreign dip­ lomatic premises are considered to be cess which is sued out or prosecuted by lomatic representatives, two problems the same as foreign territory. The am­ any person or judge whereby any per­ still remain: (1) the extent of such bassador must be treated as if he were son entitled to diplomatic immunity is ar­ privileges and immunities as are enjoyed still living in the territory of the sending rested or imprisoned, or his goods or by diplomatic personnel under current state. While the theory of exterritoriality chattels are seized or attached, such writ international practice and (2) the has been modified by many countries, or process is void. While this domestic categories of persons to whom these acts the modern trend has been toward a re­ law on the subject of diplomatic immu­ of international courtesy should apply.