Why is diplomatic immunity even a thing? Why was this particular job decided to be above the law?
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Diplomats aren’t above all the laws. If a diplomat robbed a liquor store at gunpoint, the cops are going to come in guns blazing. What they’re NOT going to do is toss them into the local jail — instead, they’re going to exile them.
Why? This is a literal case of “don’t shoot the messenger.” A lot of diplomats represent countries that are unpopular with their host nation’s local population. But if the host takes out their frustrations on the diplomat, well, now you can’t communicate with that country nearly as effectively anymore. Maybe in a place with really honest cops and courts, this isn’t a problem, but in a lot of the world, there’s a real fear of false arrest. So Diplomatic Immunity is a simple way to keep the diplomat safe.
Yes, it’s abused. But repeated abuse makes the diplomat’s whole country look terrible, which is precisely the opposite of what a diplomat is paid to do. So the abuses stay rare enough to make the rule worth keeping.
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