Thomas, J., dissenting
Article 22(1) of the VCDR provides that the premises of the mission—that is, “the buildings or parts of buildings and the land ancillary thereto… used for the purposes of the mission,” Art. 1(i)—“shall be inviolable.” The VCDR consistently uses the word “inviolable” to protect against physical intrusions and similar types of interference, not the jurisdiction of a court. The concept of “inviolability” is used, for instance, to protect the mission’s “premises,” Art. 22(1); the “archives and documents of the mission,” Art. 24; the “official correspondence of the mission,” Art. 27(2); the “private residence of a diplomatic agent,” Art. 30(1); and the diplomatic agent’s “person,” “papers, correspondence, and,” with certain exceptions, “his property,” Arts. 29, 30(2).
The provisions of the VCDR that protect against assertions of jurisdiction, by contrast, speak in terms of “immunity.” Thus, in addition to physical inviolability, the premises of the mission (and “other property thereon”) are separately “immune from search, requisition, attachment or execution.” Art. 22(3). And a diplomatic agent is separately “immun[e] from the criminal jurisdiction of the receiving State” and, generally, from “its civil and administrative jurisdiction.” Art. 31(1). Several provisions of the VCDR distinguish between “immunity from jurisdiction, and inviolability.” Art. 38(1); see Arts. 31(1), (3).
Given the VCDR’s consistent use of “inviolability” to protect against physical intrusions and interference, and “immunity” to protect against judicial authority, Article 22(1)’s protection of the mission premises is best understood as a protection against the former. Thus, under the VCDR, the inviolability of the embassy’s premises is not implicated by receipt of service papers to any greater degree than it is by receipt of other mail. Cf. Reyes v. Al-Malki, [2017] UKSC 61, ¶16 (holding that service via mail
18 (1957) (plurality opinion)).
