446 / 532
430
KLARA POLACKOVA VAN DER PLOEG
CYIL 5 ȍ2014Ȏ
Procedurally, the absence of immunity is one of the conditions of the proceedings
(in Czech:
podmínky řízení
)
36
, the fulfillment of which a court must examine on its
own initiative both at the beginning and during the course of the proceedings.
37
In case immunity attaches, the court must discontinue the proceedings, unless the
foreign State consents to the jurisdiction.
38
3.2 Development of the Doctrine of Restricted Immunity
The Polish Embassy Driver Case constituted a turning point in the area of State
immunities in the Czech Republic, breaking away with the absolute immunity
doctrine. Czechoslovak courts, under the influence of the Soviet position, used to
subscribe to the absolute immunity doctrine,
39
and foreign States could not be sued
in Czechoslovak courts unless the dispute related to immovable property located in the
territory of Czechoslovakia (with the exception of proceedings relating to the payment
of rent) or, of course, if the State consented.
In its 2008 ruling, the Supreme Court completely reversed this position
and abandoned the doctrine of absolute immunity. From the Czech domestic law
perspective, it is quite interesting that the often formalistic Supreme Court of the Czech
Republic has developed the new restricted immunity doctrine through a complete
reinterpretation of the domestic statutory provision, § 47 of the 1963 Act, which
was originally designed and continuously applied since 1963 as an embodiment of
the absolute immunity doctrine.
40
Admittedly, the statutory provision was worded
Constitution, according to which:
“The Czech Republic shall observe its obligations under international
law.”
Judgment of the Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic, dated 8 March 2007, case No. Pl.
ÚS 69/04, para. 51; Judgment of the Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic, dated 19 November
2008, case No. Pl. ÚS 14/07, para. 34; Sněmovní tisk 884/0 (III. volební období – Vládní návrh
Ústavy České republiky – EU), 2000 [Bill of the House of Representatives of the Czech Republic No.
884/0 (Third Term) Governmental Proposal of the Constitution of the Czech Republic – EU].
See
also Mikeš P.,
Aplikace mezinárodního práva v právním
řádu
ČR pohledem teorie a soudní praxe
[The
Application of International Law in the Legal Order of the Czech Republic from the Perspective of Theory and
Judicial Practice]
(Wolters Kluwer 2012), 85-89 and 255; Klíma K. et al.,
Komentář k Ústavě a Listině
[Commentary on the Constitution and the Charter of Rights]
(2
nd
ed, Vydavatelství a nakladatelství Aleš
Čeněk 2009), 121.
36
Bříza P. et al.,
Zákon o mezinárodním právu soukromém: Komentář [Act on Private International Law:
Commentary]
(1
st
ed., C.H. Beck 2014), 64; Pokorný M.,
Zákon o mezinárodním právu soukromém
a procesním: Komentář [Act on International Private and Procedural Law: Commentary]
(2
nd
ed., Beck
2004), 74.
37
Winterová A.,
Civilní právo procesní [Civil Procedure Law]
(7
th
ed, Linde Praha 2014), 213-215.
38
The court discontinues the proceedings pursuant to § 104 Sec. 1 of Act No. 99/1963 Coll., the Civil
Procedure Code, as amended.
39
Balaš V. and Pauknerová M., ‘The Czechoslovak Approach to the Draft Convention on Jurisdictional
Immunities of States and Their Property’ (1990) 12
Michigan Journal of International Law
874 at 879;
Tichý L.,
Zákon o mezinárodním právu soukromém a procesním: Komentář [Act on International Private
Law and Procedure: Commentary]
(1
st
ed, Panorama 1989), 261.
40
See
,
e.g.
, The Government of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, Answers to the Questionnaire on
the topic “Jurisdictional Immunities of States and their property”, dated 9 April 1981, UN Doc. A/
CN.4/343/Add.3; Opinion (in Czech: stanovisko) of the Supreme Court of the Czechoslovak Socialist