de Vattel: Of the Judge of Ambassadors in Civil Cases

The Law of Nations or the Principles of Natural Law (1758)Emmerich de Vattel

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Of the Judge of Ambassadors in Civil Cases§ 110. The ambassador is exempt from the civil jurisdiction of the country where he resides.§ 111. How he may voluntarily subject himself to it.§ 112. A minister who is a subject of the state where he is employed. § 113. Immunity of the minister extends to his property.§ 114. The exemption cannot extend to effects belonging to any trade the minister may carry on;§ 115. nor to immovable property which he possesses in the country. § 116. How justice may be obtained against an ambassador.
   1. Nec pontificem (in jus vocari oportet) dum sacra facit. Digest, lib. ii. lit. 4. De in Jus vocando, leg. 2.
   2. Digest. lib. v. tit 1, de Judiciia, etc. leg. 24, § 2.
   3. Ibid. leg. xxvi.
   4. M. de Bynkershoek's Competent Judge of Ambassadors, chap. xiii § 1.
   5. Ibid. — It is not long since the world witnessed the circumstance of a foreign minister in France being pursued by his creditors, and refused a passport by the French court. See Journal Politique de Bouillon, Feb. 1, 1771, p. 54, and Jan. 15, p. 57.
   6. Manner of Negotiating with Sovereigns, chap. vi.
   7. Bynkershoek, ubi supra, chap. xi.
   8. On the competent Judge of Ambassadors, chap. xvi, § 6.