Explained | Why has Germany taken Italy to the International Court of Justice?

The dispute dates back to 2008 when Germany had taken Italy to the ICJ for letting the latter’s courts decide if Germany should compensate victims of Nazi war crimes

The story so far: On Friday, April 29, Germany filed a case against Italy at the United Nations International Court of Justice at the Hague, the Netherlands, for continuing to allow entities to file cases in Italian courts to claim compensation from Germany against war crimes committed by the Nazi Third Reich during the Second World War.

This is the second time Germany has taken Italy to the Hague for the same matter. It said in its current application that Italy violated the ICJ’s 2012 judgement which protected the jurisdictional immunity of Germany.

Germany submitted in its April 29 application to the ICJ that Italy has repeatedly violated a 2012 ruling by the Court by admitting cases in its domestic courts against Germany, allowing individuals to seek compensation against war crimes committed by the Nazi government during World War II.

The ICJ had ruled in 2012 that Italian courts had violated the immunity of Germany by admitting cases and ruling that the latter pay compensations to entities for World War II-era crimes, despite Germany being outside of their legal jurisdiction.

Germany has said in its current application that after the 2012 ruling, at least 25 new compensation claims had been filed in Italy against the German state for damages arising from Nazi crimes between 1943 and 1945. It further stated that in at least 15 proceedings, Italian domestic courts had entertained and decided upon claims against Germany in relation to the conduct of the German Reich during World War II”.

Germany has also argued in the application that Italy violated its sovereign immunity by taking or threatening to take measures against German-owned properties in Italy. According to Reuters, to satisfy the compensation claims in two cases filed in Italy, its courts are trying to seize German state-owned properties in Rome. An Italian court is due to decide on May 25 whether to auction off four German properties having local offices of the German School of Rome, German Archaeological Institute, German Historical Institute, and the cultural Goethe Institute.

The German state has urged the U.N. top court to take provisional steps to stop the properties from being publicly auctioned off, while the larger case about compensation claims against Nazi war crimes is being considered. It has also asked the Court to direct Italy to make ineffective, the existing decisions taken by its courts against Germany.