The International Court of Justice, the UN’s highest court, handed down a decision on the third of this month that held sovereign immunity shielded Germany from actions in foreign jurisdictions brought by the victims of Nazi atrocities perpetrated during WWII. Specifically, the 15-judge panel ruled that the Italian Supreme Court erred in its 2008 finding that forced laborer Luigi Ferrini, an Italian civilian transported to Germany in 1944 in order to toil in the armaments industry, should receive reparations. The judges found 12-3 that the outcome of the Ferrini proceedings violated Germany’s sovereign immunity. Germany had claimed that the Italian decision posed a threat to an already established restitution system that served as the means for tens of billions of dollars of reparation payments dating back to the 1950s. It warned that if the international court upheld the Italian ruling, the result would be a slew of reparation suits worldwide, an occurrence it had attempted to avert by reaching reparation accords with Israel, Second World War era occupied nations, and particular groups, including the Conference on Jewish Material Claims against Germany. Italy in turn asserted that the principle of sovereign immunity was inapplicable where wartime crimes and crimes against humanity were concerned, an argument the world court dismissed. Greece has backed the Italian efforts, largely because of similar Greek cases instituted against Germany. The International Court of Justice decision is final and binding.