Even two judges who earlier ruled in General Pinochet's favour on head-of-state immunity briefly considered this extradition argument and rejected it.
Germany had argued that postwar agreements had settled reparation cases and that it was entitled to immunity as a state from individual claims.
Italy argued for its part that such claims were admissible as the abuses committed by German troops amounted to "international crimes" which had precedence over state immunity.
Lord Bingham concluded that a former head of state enjoys immunity as well because one English statute confers on a head of state the same legal protections as those enjoyed by an ambassador, which a second statute spells out as including immunity for official acts during his tenure as an ambassador even after he has left his post.
In fact, British law nowhere explicitly states that such immunity extends to a former, as opposed to a serving, head of state (none of the Law Lords disputed that a serving head of state enjoys immunity).
However, their immunity to privatisation, enshrined in state laws, is a big obstacle.
Then the first panel of five Law Lords, hearing an appeal of Lord Bingham's decision, found by 3-2 that former heads of state did not enjoy immunity for heinous international crimes.
Chuck, it turned out, was granted immunity after agreeing to cooperate with the state.
Also muddying the case are assurances of immunity initially given to the guards by State Department diplomatic security agents, who were investigating the incident before the FBI tried to interview them once it took over.
Murtha read a statement Wednesday that Tripp "would never have voluntarily waived her constitutional rights" when she provided the tapes to Starr's office if she had known she could be prosecuted at the state level, despite the immunity against prosecution at the federal level.
"There's Pennsylvania appellate case law that has found that Penn State is not entitled to sovereign immunity, " he said.
Without parliamentary immunity or security guards paid for by the state, her life in the Netherlands could have become very dangerous indeed.
There is no evidence that many people took up his previous offers, or that the state ever honoured its promises of immunity, he adds.
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The State Department maintains its agents did not offer blanket immunity from criminal prosecution, but promised only that the statements the guards made on the scene could not be used against them in any prosecution.
Further, due to the sovereign immunity conferred on the states by The Constitution, the opportunity to push the state into involuntary bankruptcy is out of the question.
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Clinton's main argument for recognizing this kind of "temporary immunity" is that a President should not be required to drop affairs of state every time someone decides to sue.
In 2007, the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held in 2007 that all state IP claims against UGC websites (including, presumably, state copyright laws) categorically are preempted by a different federal website immunity, 47 U.S.C. 230 (see Perfect 10 v. ccBill).
Nine days later, the judge Richard Adjei Frimpong dismissed a motion by the Argentine state to free the vessel on the grounds that it counted with diplomatic immunity, according to AFP.
That order granted private security contractors immunity from prosecution in Iraq but made them subject to the law of their "sending state".
The accusations against General Pinochet, Lord Bingham decided, refer to actions taken as head of state, not in a personal capacity, and therefore he continues to enjoy immunity from prosecution for them.
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