Abstract
This chapter aims to shed more light on the question whether international law on immunities is in crisis and, if so, how to overcome the crisis. It will not deal with all kinds of immunities under international law but will focus only on immunity of state officials.
Immunity of state officials from foreign criminal jurisdiction is governed by customary international law, whose exact scope is often debatable both in theory and practice, particularly in connection with the reinvigorated international effort to end impunity for the most serious crimes under international law, such as genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, including torture, abduction, and enforced disappearances. The development of international criminal law and justice, from the International Military Tribunal at Nurnberg to the permanent International Criminal Court, indicates exceptions; that is, excluding the official status of perpetrators of crimes under international law as the reason for their immunity from the jurisdiction of these international courts.
The argument that immunities do not apply to the perpetrators of crimes under international law, preventing them from sheltering behind their official position, was unequivocally expressed in the judgment of the Nurnberg Tribunal.