8 THE ITALIAN LAW JOURNAL NO. 2 (2022)

 

‘Fail Better’ or ‘Fail Worse Again’?
Reflections on the Holy See, Access to Justice, and JC v Belgium

by John R. Morss

In this paper the findings of the European Court of Human Rights in JC v Belgium are examined against the background of foreign state immunity for the Holy See. The Strasbourg court found that no breach of complainants’ right of access to justice within the Belgian courts had occurred as a consequence of foreign state immunity having been granted in Ghent. Here it is argued that even if foreign state immunity may properly be granted to the Holy See by national courts, in such cases the well recognised territorial tort exception to such immunity provides for process within the forum to proceed to the merits.

DOI 10.23815/2421-2156.ITALJ           ISSN 2421-2156

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