The Ferrini judgment of the Italian Supreme Court: opening up domestic courts to claims of reparation for victims of serious violations of fundamental human rights

The Ferrini judgment represents one of the most ground-breaking international law-related decisions delivered by the Italian Corte di Cassazione in the last decade. On that occasion, indeed, the Supreme Court held that Germany could not invoke state immunity with regard to gross human rights violations perpetrated in Italy by Nazi forces during World War II. The main argument developed by the Court is that the case concerned Germany’s breach of jus cogens norms which must have priority over the rule granting immunity from jurisdiction. The present article dwells upon some of the main issues raised by this judgment. The first issue concerns the way domestic or international courts reconstruct peremptory norms of customary international law. Secondly, it verifies how far may a well established norm of international law be set aside in order to protect the values enshrined in an international law of jus cogens. Thirdly, and quite independently of any question of foreign sovereign immunity, it analyzes to what extent should States grant jurisdictional remedies to victims of gross violations of human rights protected by peremptory norms of international law.