Die zivilrechtliche Immunität von Staatsbediensteten bei Verstößen gegen das Folterverbot

On 14 January 2014 the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) rendered its judgment in the case of Jones and Others v. the United Kingdom. It is the first judgment by an international court which decides on the conflict between the right of access to court (under Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights) and the immunity of state officials for acts of torture. The article seeks to analyse the ECtHR's decision in the light of the judgments of the domestic courts, and to put it into a broader perspective of public international law. It also discusses various comments on the judgment, made by both legal practitioners and academics from Europe and the United States in various international law online fora. The article concludes by arguing for a closer scrutiny on the part of the ECtHR of the manner in which domestic courts apply rules of public international law related to immunities. In the view of the author, such scrutiny would not amount to unjustified judicial activism, but rather constitute a reasonable method for strenghtening the fundmental right of access to court.