Aircraft & State immunity

In a judgment of 3 June 2021 (available here), the Paris Court of Appeal reviewed several key issues of French and international law of State immunity, including whether state-owned assets used by heads of state can be afforded protection as diplomatic assets under the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, the definition of state aircraft under the 1944 Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation, and whether the “without prejudice” clause concerning state aircraft in the 2004 UN Convention on State Immunities affords additional protection to these aircrafts.