Hintermann v. Western European Union

The case concerned an official appointed in 1982 as Deputy Secretary-General of the Western European Union (WEU) and assigned to the Permanent Armaments Committee in Paris as head of the international secretariat. Following the termination of his functions, he brought an action before the Labour Court of Paris seeking payment of indemnities.

The Paris Court of Appeal declared the claim inadmissible on the basis that the applicant had not demonstrated that he had exhausted the internal remedies of the organization, in particular by requesting the French Government to convene the WEU Council as required by the organization’s internal procedures.

Before the Supreme Court (Cour de cassation,) the applicant argued that this approach violated Article 6(1) of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) by making the organization’s deliberative organ the sole judge of the dispute, and that French courts could not decline jurisdiction under Article 14 of the Civil Code since the WEU Council could not be regarded as an alternative judicial body. The Court rejected these arguments and dismissed the appeal, upholding the organization’s immunity. It held that the WEU enjoyed jurisdictional immunity under Article 4 of the 1955 Convention on the Status of the Western European Union, its National Representatives and its International Staff, and that there had been no express waiver by the Secretary-General as required by that instrument. On this basis, the Court confirmed that French courts lacked jurisdiction. It added that, once immunity was established, arguments concerning international jurisdiction based on the connection of the dispute with France were irrelevant.