Month: November 2021

Supreme Court, K.E. and G.E. v Prosecutor

On By In Supreme Court
Supreme Court, K.E. and G.E. v Prosecutor, Nr. C.21.0095.F, 19 November 2021

The Belgian Supreme Court examines a judgement concerning the existence of Palestine as a State. The Court recalls that the 1933 Montevideo Convention is to be considered as codified customary international law and therefore applicable in the Belgian legal system. The first article of the Convention prescribes four criteria which States should fulfil in order to exist, regardless of any recognition by third States. Consequently, Belgian courts have the authority to apply and interpret this article without this interpretation becoming neither a general and legal rule nor any kind of recognition by the Belgian State. Hence, the Court adjudges that the understanding of article 1 applied to the State of Palestine in the underlying judgement was legally constituted and therefore dismisses the appeal in cassation as unfounded.

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B.A.M. v Republic of Indonesia

On By In Labour Court of Appeal
Brussels Labour Court of Appeals, B.A.M. v Republic of Indonesia, Nr. 2018/AB/868, 2 November 2021

The plaintiff, a former member of the service staff at the Indonesian embassy in Brussels, was challenging his dismissal. Affirming the appealed judgment, the Brussels Labour Court of Appeals upheld Indonesia’s State immunity from jurisdiction. With a view to determining the applicable rules of customary international law, the Court relied upon the United Nations Convention on Jurisdictional Immunities of States and Their Property. More specifically, it focused on Article 11(2)(e), which maintains the immunity where the employee is a national of the employer State – the plaintiff had indeed Indonesian citizenship. The Court considered that the limitation in Article 11(2)(e), that sets immunity aside where the employee has its permanent residence in the State of the forum, does not reflect an existing rule of customary international law. The Court went on to add that, in any event, the plaintiff had failed to demonstrate a permanent residence in Belgium at the time when the proceedings were instituted.

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