| Abstract [eng] |
The paper analyses Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, 1963; bilateral consular conventions, as well as other international and national legislation, regulating consular immunities and privileges with the emphasis on the main differences of various legal acts, as well as the application of the before-mentioned immunities and privileges. The main consideration of the paper is made on the matter of violations and abuses of consular immunities and privileges, when the states fail to fulfil their international obligations or the consular officers misuse their immunities and privileges while using them for personal benefit and avoidance of legal liability for their unlawful acts instead of applying immunities for the facilitation of the exercise of consular functions. The author uses historical, comparative and teleological methods and seeks to identify legal gaps, collisions of legal norms, interests of the states and other grounds giving access to abuses and violations of consular immunities and privileges as well as determining its misapplication. Consular immunities and privileges of consular post and consular officer as well as other consular employees are examined separately in the paper, in order to highlight its different aspects and to draw attention to the most typical problems that occur in a particular sphere. The examination of the relationship between consular immunities and privileges and human rights forms a significant part of the analysis as there is an urgent need to solve the problem of their collision. A current situation, when fundamental human rights are violated by abuses of consular immunities is no longer tolerated in democratic societies. However, the states are still unwilling to apply liability to the representatives of a foreign state in order not to harm their international relations. Finally, the author proposes to make some amendments of the legal norms regulating consular immunities and privileges, as many legal imperfections and flaws have been brought out by their application; moreover, the major part of the legislation regulating consular immunities and privileges is out-of-date and not responding to the current needs, therefore in order to solve urgent problems current legislation must be updated. |
