Magister Legum - LLM / Sitting head of state immunity for crimes under international law has been a very controversial issue in recent times. On the one hand, the debate bears that personal immunity has been renounced for crimes under international law. On the other hand, the advocates of personal immunity claim that the principle of immunity is still persisting under customary International law. Although the International Criminal Court (ICC) is a treaty based court, it is able to extend its jurisdiction to non-state parties to the Rome Statute through a referral by the United Nations Security Council. Lacking its own enforcement body the ICC relies on the cooperation of other states for arrest and surrender of those it indicts. The extension of the court's jurisdiction to non-state parties, such as the case of Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir, has led to the reluctance of state parties to the Rome Statue to effect arrest and surrender citing a 'dilemma between two conflicting obligations'. This paper analyses the legal status of personal immunity before different fora such as International tribunals, foreign domestic courts and under customary international law. It also critically examines the legal basis for the alleged conflicting obligations of state parties. The paper at the end concludes that there is no conflicting obligation for states parties to fully co-operate with the ICC and the lack of co-operation in the arrest and surrender of a sitting head of state is inconsistent with international law particularly with United Nation Charter and the Rome Statute. / German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)

This thesis deals with immunities of state officials, from the high-ranking to less significant ones, from the criminal jurisdiction of a foreign state, and thus the question, if another state may exercise its jurisdiction over crimes perpetrated by state officials when the foreign state has power to punish such a crime. International law traditionally provides the highest protection to the head of state, but later evolved also the personal immunity of other senior officials, who act on the international level, that is head of government and minister for foreign affairs. In contrast to personal immunity, functional immunity protects all state officials, who perform an official act. The first chapter addresses the terms. It describes the terms immunity, its types and basic characteristics; the notion of state officials and foreign criminal jurisdiction. The second chapter engages in personal immunity (immunity ratione personae), its subjective, objective and temporal scope. The third chapter sheds light on the second type of immunity - the functional immunity (ratione materiae), apart from its scopes there are exceptions to functional immunity discussed. The fourth chapter provides with an overview of some significant cases connected to immunities of state officials. In the first subchapter you can...