The Dutch Supreme Court has upheld a ruling that a Palestinian man cannot sue Israel’s former defense minister and another former senior military officer over their roles in a deadly Gaza 2014 airstrike.
I am not a practicing attorney in either Israel or the Netherlands, but I don’t believe it applies as (a) the article suggests it was a suit for damages/monetery compensation, which is a civil suit, and non-criminal proceedings are generally not eligible for extradition; and (b) as the defendant is the Israeli Minister of Defence and was sued for his conduct in the course of his duties, in many jurisdictions this would imply he was acting on behalf of, and theoretically under orders or with support of, the state; therefore it is the state itself that should be the target of such a suit, which brings me back to it falling under the jurisdiction of that state’s judiciary.
An example with US-tinted glasses: suppose you feel President Biden wronged you in his capacity as president; you generally would not be able to sue or press charges against him personally in a suit like Bob Smith v. Joe Biden; you would have to sue the Government with him and his deputies as named representatives (Bob Smith v. United States).
Now replace Bob Smith with a Mexican fellow, Roberto Herrero. The same suit with a Mexican plaintiff, Roberto Herroro v. United States, by definition cannot be carried out in Mexico - at least not to any binding result. To the extent the US Government ought to be compelled to do anything, it would have to be by its own judiciary.
I am not a practicing attorney in either Israel or the Netherlands, but I don’t believe it applies as (a) the article suggests it was a suit for damages/monetery compensation, which is a civil suit, and non-criminal proceedings are generally not eligible for extradition; and (b) as the defendant is the Israeli Minister of Defence and was sued for his conduct in the course of his duties, in many jurisdictions this would imply he was acting on behalf of, and theoretically under orders or with support of, the state; therefore it is the state itself that should be the target of such a suit, which brings me back to it falling under the jurisdiction of that state’s judiciary.
An example with US-tinted glasses: suppose you feel President Biden wronged you in his capacity as president; you generally would not be able to sue or press charges against him personally in a suit like Bob Smith v. Joe Biden; you would have to sue the Government with him and his deputies as named representatives (Bob Smith v. United States).
Now replace Bob Smith with a Mexican fellow, Roberto Herrero. The same suit with a Mexican plaintiff, Roberto Herroro v. United States, by definition cannot be carried out in Mexico - at least not to any binding result. To the extent the US Government ought to be compelled to do anything, it would have to be by its own judiciary.
I stand corrected.