Diplomatic Immunity

Schedule 1 to the Diplomatic Privileges Act 1964 sets out the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations as it applies in UK law. Article 29 provides that '[t]he person of a diplomatic agent shall be inviolable. He shall not be liable to any form of arrest or detention,' and that the receiving state 'shall treat him with due respect and shall take all appropriate steps to prevent any attack on his person, freedom or dignity.' Article 31(1) goes further, providing that 'A diplomatic agent shall enjoy immunity from the criminal jurisdiction of the receiving State. He shall also enjoy immunity from its civil and administrative jurisdiction,' subject only to three narrow exceptions: real actions relating to private immovable property held other than on behalf of the sending state, succession actions where the agent is involved personally rather than on the sending state's behalf, and actions relating to professional or commercial activity outside the agent's official functions.

The immunity also extends to compelled testimony: Article 31(2) states simply that 'A diplomatic agent is not obliged to give evidence as a witness.' Article 39 governs the duration of these privileges, providing that they begin from the moment the agent enters the territory to take up their post (or, if already in the territory, from notification of appointment), and that although the immunities generally cease when the agent leaves the country, 'immunity for official acts continues indefinitely' — a distinction commonly described as the difference between immunity ratione personae and immunity ratione materiae for acts performed in the exercise of official functions.