United Arab Republic v Mattei

• Jurisdiction: Egipto
• Date: 21 January 1962
• Court: Obsolete Court (Egypt)

United Arab Republic, State Security Tribunal.

The State

and

Mattei and Others.

International law Relation to municipal law Diplomatic Note purporting to provide for jurisdictional immunity of member of governmental Commission Local legislation not in conformity with Note Whether Note constitutes an international agreement Whether terms of Note prevail over local law The law of the United Arab Republic.

Diplomatic privileges and immunities Miscellaneous Member of governmental Commission temporarily in foreign State with its consent and pursuant to treaty French Property Commission in Egypt Allegations of espionage Whether entitled to immunity from jurisdiction Entitlement to immunity derived from terms of diplomatic note and from local legislation, which were not identical Whether diplomatic note constitutes international agreement Whether terms of diplomatic note prevail over local law Entitlement of ad hoc official missions to immunity under customary international law The law of the United Arab Republic.

The Facts.France and the United Arab Republic entered into an Agreement at Zurich on August 22, 1958 (hereinafter called the Zurich Agreement). This Agreement provided for the way in which French property in the Egyptian territory of the United Arab Republic, which had been sequestrated in 1956, should be dealt with: in particular, it provided that, there being no diplomatic relations between France and the United Arab Republic, there should be established in Egypt a French governmental commission to assist with the implementation of the Agreement. It was provided in Article 61 that this commission would enjoy during its mission the facilities necessary for its task, but these facilities were not specified.

In October 1958, the members of the French Property Commission, most of whom were members of the French diplomatic service, established their office in Cairo. Before their arrival in the United Arab Republic no action appears to have been taken to specify the facilities which they were to enjoy. They were, however, issued with non-diplomatic identity cards by the authorities of the United Arab Republic. They were not given diplomatic customs

franchise, and their cars were given ordinary private number plates, not the special number plates given to diplomatic agents

The privileges and immunities to be enjoyed by the French Property Commission were specified in greater detail subsequently, after the conclusion on February 28, 1959, of the Agreement between the United Kingdom and the United Arab Republic on financial and commercial relations and British property in Egypt.1 The general purpose of this Agreement was to do for British property much the same as the Zurich Agreement did for French property. A British Commission to...