CYIL 2015

THE CZECHǧAUSTRIAN DECLARATION ON JURISDICTIONAL IMMUNITIES … status in the last preambular paragraph. In this respect the Declaration will be more important in a scenario where it is signed by a State that has not ratified or acceded to the UN Convention. By doing so, such a State would demonstrate that – although it may have a problem with one or two articles of the UN Convention – it does not question the customary law status of most of its provisions. Through the preambular paragraph the Declaration could be used in all situations that are covered by the UN Convention. In line with this argument, the Czech Republic has already submitted the Declaration once – in order to support its State immunity argument – to a court of a country that has signed the Declaration but is not a contracting State of the UN Convention, in a legal dispute unrelated to State-owned cultural property. These proceedings are still on-going. Third, some of my colleagues – from the foreign ministries of States that have not yet ratified or acceded to the UN Convention – have admitted that the Czech Austrian initiative brought their attention to the status and content of this important treaty. Furthermore, the process of evaluating the Declaration made them take a second look at the UN Convention and sometimes even start their internal ratification or accession process. In this context, if the Declaration helps to bring the UN Convention into force by reaching the minimal amount of thirty State parties, then it was a project worth pursuing. There is no doubt that – for the reason of legal certainty (die Rechtssicherheit, la sécurité juridique) – quick entry into force of the UN Convention is desirable for the Czech Republic and the international community as well. Finally, it is fair to conclude that it is probably too early to pronounce final judgment on the Czech-Austrian Declaration. The amount of thirteen signatories, including key lending and borrowing States like France and the Netherlands, is certainly not small. In order to achieve a wider impact, however, a higher number of signatory States would have to be reached. In this respect, further efforts of Czech and Austrian diplomacy towards this goal will be needed.

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