The UN's highest court ordered Italy Friday to annul all compensation claims against Germany for Nazi war crimes, saying Rome breached international laws when its courts allowed the claims to be made. Germany's Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle welcomed the ruling, saying it provided legal clarity while in no way diminishing German responsibility for the crimes of World War II.
His Italian counterpart Giulio Terzi said Rome respected the ruling and welcomed its encouragement of dialogue between the two European Union members to resolve their dispute stemming from the actions of German troops in Italy during the war. The Italian republic "violated its obligations to respect the immunity which Germany enjoys under international law by allowing civil claims based on violations committed by the German Reich between 1943 and 1945," ICJ judge Hisashi Owada told a public hearing.
"The Italian republic must, by enacting appropriate legislation, or by... other methods, ensure the decisions of its courts infringing the immunity which Germany enjoys under international law cease to have effect." The two European Union members have been locked in a legal battle since December 2008, when Germany filed an application before the ICJ after an avalanche of lawsuits by Italian relatives and widows for abuses by Adolf Hitler's Third Reich.
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