It's a lot of fun being above the law (fun for one person anyway, not for anyone else)

Summary: People already speculate about how Battistelli will attempt to come up with excuses for noncompliance (and ongoing violation of the EPC as well as ILO code)

OUR article from early this morning took stock of many other articles about the latest rulings from ILO. As we pointed out at the very start, Battistelli had not implemented or complied with the court's orders in Holland, so why Switzerland? In fact, as we explained before, Battistelli already defied court orders from ILO as well (e.g. composition of internal committees). Battistelli is a serial offender who, in the "real world", would be charged with contempt of court. But he's politically-connected and likes to flaunt "immunity!"

This is no laughing matter. It's not comical. People's lives are at stake and EPO scandals may have already cost the lives of half dozen people.

Team UPC's Robinson asked a few hours ago, "what happens now if the EPO simply refuses to implement the ILO's orders? Is there any enforcement mechanism? Recall that the EPO suggested it would have simply ignored the Dutch Supreme Court if the ruling there had gone against it."

Indeed.

And watch the the 6 comments (so far) in Thorsten Bausch's article. To quote just three of them:

I must say, I was not expecting to hear from the ILO quite so soon. I had supposed there was 10 year pendency in its cases. BB getting a dose of his own “early certainty” medicine? How ironic!

I wonder though, can the President (or the AC) appeal the ILO judgement to a higher instance? And what mechanism is there to enforce an ILO judgement on a supra-national entity like the AC?

No, there is no possibility for either party or intervener to a complaint before the ILOAT to appeal to a higher instance. Article VI, 1. of the Tribunal’s Statute provides:

“The Tribunal shall take decisions by majority vote. Judgments shall be final and without appeal. The Tribunal may nevertheless consider applications for interpretation, execution or review of a judgment.”

This also is an answer to your second question: While there is no possibility for an official benefitting from a Tribunal’s order to enforce a judgment, he or she can file an application for execution. In most cases where international organisations under the juridiction of the ILOAT have tarried over the execution of a judgment, damages then ordered by the Tribunal following a succesful application for execution were substantial.

What sticks in my craw about all of this is that there will be no comeback whatsoever for the “guilty” parties. Indeed, the only ones that will (literally) pay for this whole debacle is the users of the EPO – as they are the only ones who provide the funds with which the EPO will pay the damages and compensation awarded, as well as the (no doubt exorbitant) legal fees for a case that should never have existed in the first place.

With this in mind, I would very much like to see the AC to strip Mr Battistelli of his immunity, so that at the very least the Board of Appeal member that is the subject of the ILO’s judgements can ask a court of law to decide whether any civil torts (or even any criminal offences) have been committed during the course of what has clearly been a vendetta against him.

What the BVerfG will make of all this is anyone’s guess. However, we can be sure that they will have been watching closely.

How can UPC ever become a reality when the system is so defunct and justice is merely a mirage? And to put someone like Battistelli in charge of UPC is the moral equivalent of putting Mugabe in charge of HRW.

To quote another new comment, "the EPO is not a member and is independent of the jurisdiction of any member state. Sounds like someone just wasted a lot of time and money to me on a judgement that will likely be ignored."

If Battistelli ignores this ruling too, there will be something akin to a gentlemen's riot at the EPO. We are guessing that this is how Benoît Battistelli and Željko Topić will attempt to dodge compliance with the ruling. The very fact that thugs like Battistelli and Topić are even in positions of power at the EPO is a testament to the sort of mess the EPO is presently in. Kremlin-connected broadcasters such as Russia Today couldn't ask for a better example of Europe being as defunct as (if not more defunct than) Russian politics, complete with tandemocracy (Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin being the Campinos/Battistelli equivalent). ⬆