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The former king of Spain is claiming sovereign immunity from the jurisdiction of the English courts in a harassment case brought by his former lover.
Juan Carlos Alfonso Victor Maria De Borbon y Borbon says he is subject only to the jurisdiction of the Spanish Supreme Court in respect of any acts after his 2014 abdication as King Juan Carlos I, citing the State Immunity Act 1978 and the Treaty of Utretcht of 1713.
Claimant Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn claims the former king, or his servants or agents, placed her under surveillance and attempted to intimidate her, including by breaking into her Swiss apartment and leaving a book on the death of Diana, Princess of Wales on a coffee table.
‘His Majesty rejects the allegations made against him and any alleged wrongdoing by the Spanish state is denied in the strongest of terms,’ the High Court was told this week.
The former monarch’s barrister Sir Daniel Bethlehem QC argued in written submissions that his client is immune from the claim both in respect of acts in his public capacity while head of state and ‘as a sovereign and a member of the current king’s family’.
‘This does not place His Majesty above the law, but only recognises that … he is properly subject to the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of Spain, and the Supreme Court of Spain alone,’ he added.
Bethlehem said ‘there is an inherent public interest in protecting the dignity of the sovereign and close members of the royal family’, which was ‘expressly acknowledged and affirmed’ in the recent ruling by the president of the family division, sealing the will of the Duke of Edinburgh for 90 years.
‘It is not, and cannot be, in the public interest of the United Kingdom that its courts sit in judgment of allegations raised against His Majesty,’ Bethlehem argued.
However, Jonathan Caplan QC, for zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn, said Juan Carlos was ‘obviously’ not a sovereign or head of state, or a ‘dependent’ family member of the current king.
The alleged harassment is also ‘quintessentially private in nature’, Caplan added, which were ‘clearly for his own personal benefit’, meaning De Borbon is not entitled to immunity.
The hearing before Mr Justice Nicklin is expected to conclude this afternoon.
