Vatican's defense attorney specializes in sovereign immunity law, & immunity is the church's defense

[Tuvok Obama]

This caught my attention when reading an AP profile on Jeffrey Lena, the Vatican's defense attorney:

But as the Vatican reels from a swirling clerical sex abuse crisis, the Holy See has turned to an unusual advocate: a tennis-loving, Saab-driving solo practitioner from Berkeley, Calif., whose obscure interest in sovereign immunity law and fluency in Italian landed him the job of the pope's U.S. lawyer.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36618840/ns/world_news-europe

Immunity from prosecution seems to be the church's strongest defense, whether the charges are child molestation and rape, money laundering, or stashing Nazi spoils of war.

From the Washington Post:

In a suit pending before the U.S. Supreme Court, Lena argues that the court has no jurisdiction to try the Vatican for transferring a predatory priest from Ireland to Oregon. In Mississippi, he is defending the Vatican against accusations that it participated in a money laundering scheme. In New York, Lena is defending the Holy See in a commercial licensing dispute about the use of images belonging to the Vatican Museums.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/18/AR2010041801523.html

Associated Press:

Lena was teaching contracts at the University of Turin in 2000 when he was asked to submit his advice on a clamorous lawsuit that had just been filed near his hometown in San Francisco. Holocaust survivors from Croatia, Ukraine and Yugoslavia had filed suit against the Vatican bank, alleging that it accepted millions of dollars of their valuables stolen by Nazi sympathizers.

...

The Holocaust claims suit against the Vatican bank was dismissed in December after an appeals court upheld the bank's immunity under the foreign sovereign immunities act, one of at least 12 published federal decisions Lena has won in the area of sovereign immunity.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j-7doeVnrMLf1OoCiHc6Dkl2lvsQD9F55FT00

The Pope can say all he wants about the his sympathy for the victims in these cases, but when legal push comes to legal shove, the Vatican's defense is that it is outside the legal jurisdiction of the charges:

Lena views his defense of the Vatican under an overarching principle that a state should only have jurisdiction over a foreign sovereign when harmful conduct is actually attributable to the foreign government itself. If a state reaches out to take jurisdiction over another country, the delicate balance of international power can be undermined.

...

The 9th Circuit Court found that some property claims could not be excluded under the political question doctrine, but the Vatican Bank ultimately prevailed in avoiding jurisdiction on the grounds of the Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act.

...

Last month, Lena filed documents with the U.S. District Court in Louisville claiming that Benedict is immune from the jurisdiction of American courts because he is the head of a sovereign state, and that American bishops are not employees of the Vatican.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/18/AR2010041801523.html

[Ikonoklast]

1. World-wide racketeering.

Sovereign immunity will not save them from a state-by-state prosecution in Europe.

The Vatican will have to declare every priest, bishop, and cardinal above any local jurisdiction.

[Warpy]

2. Or promote them all to the Vatican, the way they did with Law

Eventually that place will be overstuffed to bursting.

[Tuvok Obama]

3. No, the Vatican can legally cut them loose, if Lena wins this ruling...

"Last month, Lena filed documents with the U.S. District Court in Louisville claiming that Benedict is immune from the jurisdiction of American courts because he is the head of a sovereign state, and that American bishops are not employees of the Vatican."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/18/AR2010041801523.html

The Vatican's defense is not "we didn't do anything wrong," it's "your laws don't apply to us" ... and the Vatican specifically excludes priests and bishops in its definition of "us."

[dorkulon]

4. Then I guess regime change is the answer.

Easiest invasion since Grenada.

[LiberalFighter]

5. I would suggest that all countries should revoke the visas of all Vatican employees.