The Irish Government has won a decade-long legal battle justifying its impounding of a Yugoslav-owned aircraft in 1993 while it was enforcing UN and EU sanctions against the former Yugoslavia.
The European Court of Human Rights recently ruled unanimously that the seizure was in accordance with the European Convention on Human Rights, and was not a violation of the right to property.
The case was the last in a series of challenges to the seizure which went to the High Court, the Supreme Court and the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg.
As part of its response to mass human rights violations in the former Yugoslavia, in 1993 the UN imposed a number of sanctions which were translated into regulations by the EU. The objects of the sanctions regime included aircraft.
The aircraft in question was owned by the Yugoslav state airline, and had been leased by a company called Bosphorus Airways shortly before the imposition of sanctions. The aircraft was in Dublin for servicing by Team Aer Lingus, then owned by the Irish State.
In June 1993, on the advice of the sanctions committee set up by the UN Security Council to monitor the Yugoslav sanctions, the Government impounded the aircraft.
This aircraft was the only one to be seized under the sanctions regime.
The decision to impound the aircraft was challenged before the Irish courts by Bosphorus Airways, which was initially successfully in the High Court in 1994.
The case was appealed to the Supreme Court, and was referred by the Supreme Court to the Court of Justice of the European Communities in Luxembourg.
This ruled that the Government was obliged to seize such aircraft, so the case went back to the Supreme Court, which upheld the appeal in 1996.
By then Bosphorus Airways' lease on the aircraft had expired. The sanctions had also been relaxed, and the Irish Government returned the aircraft to Yugoslavia.
Bosphorus Airways then brought a claim against the Government to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, claiming that its right to property, as guaranteed under the European Convention on Human Rights, had been violated by the impounding of the aircraft.
This court decided the applicant's claim would be heard before a Grand Chamber of 17 judges reserved to hear cases of particular importance. In view of the EU aspect of the case, the European Commission was allowed to intervene.
A public hearing took place in Strasbourg in September 2004, and written submissions were made by Italy and the UK as well as the European Commission.
The Grand Chamber ruled unanimously that Ireland's seizure of the aircraft did not violate the applicant's rights, saying that the Government was obliged to impound the aircraft in order to meet its international obligations.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern has welcomed the ruling.
"The unanimous verdict by the European Court of Human Rights strikes a careful balance between the need to prevent mass violations of human rights, such as were occurring in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s, and the property rights of particular individuals."