With Judgment No. 238/2014, the Italian Constitutional Court (hereinafter Court) quashed the Italian legislation setting out the obligation to comply with the sections of the 2012 decision of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in Jurisdictional Immunities of the State (Germany v. Italy; Greece intervening) (Jurisdictional Immunities or Germany v. Italy) that uphold the rule of sovereign immunity with respect to compensation claims in Italian courts based on grave breaches of human rights, including—in the first place—the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The Court found the legislation to be incompatible with Articles 2 and 24 of the Italian Constitution, which secure the protection of inviolable human rights and the right of access to justice (operative paras. 1, 2).

International sanctions, understood as coercive means imposed by the United Nations, or by States, individually or collectively, against a country responsible for violating fundamental rules of international law, have been extensively analysed in the legal literature.1 A survey of such literature shows that particular emphasis has been put on the nature of sanctions, their status in international law and the very controversial issue of the legality of their adoption either by regional organisations, or by a State motu proprio, unilaterally.