International personality of the holy see and immunity from jurisdiction before the Belgian Courts and the European Court of human rights

Abstract

The fact that the Holy See has international legal personality is nothing new, but what about the Vatican City State and the Catholic Church ? For the first time, an international court, the European Court of Human Rights, has ruled on these questions and also on the question of whether the Holy See can be granted immunity from jurisdiction. The Strasbourg judgment J.C. et al. v. Belgium of 12 October 2021 will be the guideline for presenting these different aspects of international public law.