CYIL 2015

399

THE CZECHǧAUSTRIAN DECLARATION ON JURISDICTIONAL IMMUNITIES …

status in the last preambular paragraph. In this respect the Declaration will be more

important in a scenario where it is signed by a State that has not ratified or acceded

to the UN Convention. By doing so, such a State would demonstrate that – although

it may have a problem with one or two articles of the UN Convention – it does not

question the customary law status of most of its provisions. Through the preambular

paragraph the Declaration could be used in all situations that are covered by the UN

Convention. In line with this argument, the Czech Republic has already submitted

the Declaration once – in order to support its State immunity argument – to a court

of a country that has signed the Declaration but is not a contracting State of the UN

Convention, in a legal dispute unrelated to State-owned cultural property. These

proceedings are still on-going.

Third, some of my colleagues – from the foreign ministries of States that have

not yet ratified or acceded to the UN Convention – have admitted that the Czech-

Austrian initiative brought their attention to the status and content of this important

treaty. Furthermore, the process of evaluating the Declaration made them take a second

look at the UN Convention and sometimes even start their internal ratification or

accession process. In this context, if the Declaration helps to bring the UN Convention

into force by reaching the minimal amount of thirty State parties, then it was a

project worth pursuing. There is no doubt that – for the reason of legal certainty

(die

Rechtssicherheit, la sécurité juridique)

– quick entry into force of the UN Convention

is desirable for the Czech Republic and the international community as well.

Finally, it is fair to conclude that it is probably too early to pronounce final judgment

on the Czech-Austrian Declaration. The amount of thirteen signatories, including key

lending and borrowing States like France and the Netherlands, is certainly not small.

In order to achieve a wider impact, however, a higher number of signatory States

would have to be reached. In this respect, further efforts of Czech and Austrian

diplomacy towards this goal will be needed.