When members of foreign royal famillies (other than monarchs) visit the US do the have diplomatic immunity?
I have been reading about diplomatic immunity and the definition of a diplomat is pretty vague. From what I can gather, a diplomat must be actively engaged with relations or government business between the two countries. That seems to rule out family members that are on recreational trips but I suppose the Royal Family might be able to just make a family member some type of diplomat if the issue was important to them.
They are not diplomats covered by the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, but they are heads of state (at least the monarchs themselves), and customary international law (the other source of international law besides treaties) grants them absolute immunity from foreign jurisdiction apart from exceptional crimes such as genocide). It’s not entirely settled if this immunity ends with the end of their term of office; for things they did privately, there’s common agreement that it does end, but some jurists claim it extends for a lifetime for acts committed in their function as head of state.
[sub]Cite: A German language textbook on public international law I have here.[/sub]
Oh, sonce you asked specifically about family members other than teh monarchs: The family of the head of state also has immunity (this is not restricted to monarchs but also applies to the spouses and children of presidents in republics).
A friend of a friend attended USC (I believe; it may have been a different Southern California University) some years ago with one of the sons of the Sultan of Brunei. He had diplomatic immunity. He always got to be the driver on evenings out, because A) he had the nicest car, and B) they never had to worry about silly little things like traffic laws.
http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mdiploimmunity.html
He would have to be a diplomat or a close relative to a diplomat or head of state.