Chapter VIII. Decisions of National Tribunals

Italy

SUPREME COURT OF CASSATION (FULL CIVIL CHAMBER)

INTERNATIONAL CENTRE FOR ADVANCED TECHNICAL AND VOCATONAL TRAINING (INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANIZATION) V. TIRONE ROSANGELA ET AL., JUDGEMENT NO. 11781 OF 29 OCTOBER 1992

Immunity from measures of execution —Request to the Supreme Court to recognize the Applicant's immunity from legal process and declare invalid, for lack of jurisdiction, an attachment order issued by a lower court—Effect on a subsequent treaty of a reference to Italy's earlier reservations to the Convention on Privileges and Immunities—Question whether a subsidiary body was covered by the ILO's legal personality

1. The Applicant (whose name is now the International Training Centre of the ILO) was established in Turin by the Governing Body of the International Labour Office in 1963. An Agreement concluded between the Italian Government and the ILO in 1%4 provided, in article 3.1, that "the Centre will enjoy in Italy .. . the privileges and immunities granted to the International Labour Organization by the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the Specialized Agencies as adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 21 November 1947 and accepted in the name of the International Labour Organization by the International Labour Conference on 10 July 1948".'

2. At the time of conclusion, the signatories exchanged various letters, in one of which the Italian Minister for Foreign Affairs recalled, in relation to the above article, the reservations that Italy had lodged with the Secretary-General of the United Nations in 1952 with respect to its adherence to the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the Specialized Agencies under which recognition of immunity from legal process would have been limited to that "accorded to foreign States in accordance with international law".

3. The present request to the Italian Supreme Court to declare invalid an order of attachment by a lower court on a bank account held by the Centre in Italy was mainly based on article 3.1 cited above...