Diplomatic Plates

I have just purchased a second-hand big, beautiful, shiny Jaguar with diplomatic plates. Unfortunately I have had to turn in the plates, but I’m left holding this marvellous car, and that has led me to wondering what would it be like to drive a car with immunity to prosecution?

The whole topic of the Diplomatic Corp is so off the radar that average people can have no real concept of what Diplomatic Immunity can mean. Fundamentally it is an agreement between governments not to prosecute each other’s agents while they are performing their duties in foreign countries. It is ancient practise based upon mutual and reciprocal understanding that a person so protected will not have to appear before the court in the host country.

However, under certain circumstances the host country may request that the diplomat be withdrawn, or the host country may expel that person. In cases of serious crimes committed by the diplomat the immunity may be withdrawn by the official’s home country, and that would allow for full prosecution as an ordinary citizen.

While all this protection sounds wonderful, the fact is that a person who is a diplomat should be the last person to break the law. Usually we expect someone in that position to be undertaking very serious work on behalf of their native country, and consequently should know better.

That has a nice sound to it, but the fact is that the most egregious acts committed by diplomats usually happen when they are under the influence of alcohol. Drunken diplomats behind the wheel have killed people, and if the home country refuses to lift the immunity the host country cannot prosecute. The record is complete with many examples of this sort of thing happening; however, these days the trend is more towards either lifting the immunity in the host country, or bringing the official home to be prosecuted under home laws. Governments are becoming less tolerant of irresponsible behaviour by their officials abroad. At the least it is an embarrassment, and at worse it seriously damages the reputation of the home country.

There is one area that tends to frustrate more than anything else, and that is parking. In New York, home to the United Nations, and consequently the place where practically every other person is a diplomat, cars on diplomatic plates are regularly parked provocatively against the law. Curiously, policemen insist on ticketing such cars, and those tickets get ignored leading the City to complain to The State Department. Countries tend to have a rule that such parking tickets should be paid and the offence not repeated. However, these offences tend to be committed by drivers in their bosses’ name, presumably as a means to feel big.

So, just for a moment I thought it might be nice to be able to do things that not even the police can do…… with their police cars. But then, I went and lay down until the feeling went away, and I gave back the plates.

We can all dream, can’t we?


Copyright © 2009 Eugene Carmichael