Oberster Gerichtshof, Urteil vom 14/05/2001 4 Ob 97/01w
Decision by national courts in the field of European Union law — ECLI:AT:OGH0002:2001:RS0115353
Date: 2001-05-14
Subject matter: Brussels Convention of 27 September 1968
Origin: Austria

82001AT0514(51)_ENG_SUMJURE
JURE SUMMARY
JURE SUMMARY
The plaintiff domiciled in Austria requests before the Austrian courts of the defendant State, the omission of economically damageable measures, such as the boycott appeal against the politically unpopular Austrian government as well as reimbursement of the damages occurred. The court of first instance declares itself incompetent since the foreign affairs action of the defendant State is always a sovereign action which constitutes a public law case and not a civil case in the sense of the Lugano respectively Brussels Convention. This was affirmed by the court of appeal.
The OGH (AT) finds that the disputes for which an international law immunity of the States and diplomats exist, does not fall within the Brussels Convention. The scope of the Brussels Convention is restricted, according to its Article 1, to civil and commercial matters so that claims regarding the practice of sovereign powers of an authority as well as claims for State responsibility, are excluded. In this case, the actions which triggered the damages, as the conclusion of bilateral agreements or the declarations from the Ministry of foreign affairs of the defendant State, are clearly an expression of the foreign authority, which shall without a doubt be assigned to the centre of the public authority. Thus they cannot be perceived by an individual and shall be added to the sovereign area.