Hostname: page-component-76d6cb85b7-f97m6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-07-15T13:42:55.683Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Ruling No. 684 B+R3 (Cass.)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 March 2026

Apollin Koagne Zouapet Open the ORCID record for Apollin Koagne Zouapet [Opens in a new window]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

On July 25, 2025, the French Court of Cassation handed down an important decision concerning the existence in international law of possible exceptions to the functional immunity of agents of a foreign state. The Court of Cassation reached the conclusion that the “principle of functional immunity from jurisdiction in criminal matters” recognized for foreign agents acting in the exercise of their functions cannot be invoked in cases of prosecutions for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. However, the Court’s internationalist approach, which sought to identify the evolution of custom on the issue by examining relevant state practice, remains exclusively Eurocentric, by examining the practice of only five states, all from the same region of the world.

Information

Type
International Legal Documents
Information
International Legal Materials , Volume 65 , Issue 3 , June 2026 , pp. 499 - 511
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2026. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of American Society of International Law

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

Footnotes

*

Legal Officer, International Court of Justice, The Hague, the Netherlands. The views expressed herein are those of the author and in any event do not represent the position of the Court, its Registry or the United Nations.

References

Notes

1 Cour de cassation [Cass.] [supreme court for judicial matters] crim., Juil. 25, 2025, n° 24-84.071, (B) (R), PL; Cour de cassation [Cass.] [supreme court for judicial matters] crim., Juil. 13, 2025, n° 24-84.393, (B) (R), PL.

2 No. 24-84.071, (B) (R), PL [hereinafter Decision].

3 Decision, ¶¶ 9, 11–14.

4 Id. ¶ 10.

5 Id. ¶ 19.

6 Id. ¶ 18.

7 Id. ¶ 20–22.

8 Id. ¶ 23.

9 Id. ¶¶ 24–26.

10 Id. ¶ 27–30.

11 Id. ¶¶ 31–33.

12 See Apollin, Koagne Zouapet, Les Immunites dans l’Ordre Juridique International. Le Prisme de la Constance (Pedone, 2020) 334–366.

13 Conclusion 8, ILC’s Draft Conclusions on Identification Of Customary International Law, Y.B. Int’l L. Comm’n (2018).

14 See Régis Bismuth et al., Sovereign Immunity Under Pressure (Springer 2022).

15 Koagne Zouapet, supra note 12, p. 435.