History Main / DiplomaticImpunity

[[caption-width-right:484: [[TemptingFate "Looks like you finally put a lid on this case,]] [[VisualNovel/AceAttorneyInvestigationsMilesEdgeworth Mr. Edgeworth!"]]]]
->''"Ju-ju-ju-ju-just like the bad guys from Film/LethalWeapon2,\\

[[folder:Comic Book]]
* The most absurd part of it all (perhaps) is that it's almost explicit that only supervillains can benefit from this in the comics. Examples: Doctor Doom (Marvel Comics) and Black Adam (DC Comics) can openly attack America and try to kill their enemies for some childish feud and cannot be touched because of "Diplomatic Immunity", not even taking any damage from their influence. and political position. But whether it was Wonder Woman (Princess and Ambassador of Themyscira) or Aquaman (King of Atlantis) who did something somewhat similar, or were framed (happened many times), they were instantly considered Enemies of the State and everyone would try to condemn them. for Crimes Against Humanity (Even if they had not committed any Crimes Against Humanity). Compare the time Wonder Woman [[spoiler:killed Maxwell Lord]] and the entire Supreme Court desperately tried to get her guilty of murder and imprisoned for life, to the thousands of times some supervillain tried to take over the United States or " simply" commit global genocide and, at most, was reprimanded for that trope and then filed a lawsuit against the heroes who stopped him for having attacked him.
* ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'': ComicBook/DoctorDoom, as ruler of Latveria, enjoys the head-of-state version when on official visits, but he's fair game when visiting on other occasions.
** In the Crossover story where he fought Superman, after his plan was defeated Doom ran to the Latverian embassy, reaching it seconds before Superman arrived, then simply turned toward Superman and dared him to cross the embassy border to try arresting him on Latverian soil. Superman didn't want to trigger a major diplomatic incident so he turned around and left.
** In one Fantastic Four story, Reed Richards and his family go to Latveria and take it over briefly so they can dismantle Doom's assets while he's suffering from a temporary death. They're eventually challenged by ComicBook/NickFury and arrested due to breaking international law by occupying the country, regardless of the fact that they're removing the tools Doom used to oppress the populace. Eventually it's pointed out to Fury that in addition to being a murderous tyrant, Dr. Doom broke international law and committed horrible crimes just about every other day on both his own and foreign soil, yet somehow neither the United Nations or any authority ever revoked his diplomatic immunity or attempted to remove him from power. This has never been brought up again.
** Should be noted that while Latveria is a tiny fictional country and normally would lack any amount of real political clout, the fact that Doom is an {{Ubermensch}} {{super|Intelligence}}-genius means that he was able to turn it into a ''de facto'' global superpower on par with or even ''surpassing'' the United State of America, having access to technology so advanced that in the event of a war between the two Latveria would almost certainly win; Doom himself is powerful enough to let him take on an entire team of superheroes by himself, not to mention he has teleportation and TimeTravel tech on his person ''and'' in his embassy so can enter and leave the United States at any time. It is likely that Doom has not been arrested less because of his immunity and more because even ''trying'' to arrest him is incredibly dangerous.
* Once, after defeating Maxima in battle yet again, Franchise/{{Superman}} cites this as a reason for the police to withdraw. The other reason is that the Queen of Almerac is just as powerful as him, so the police wouldn't have been able to hold her anyway.
* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'':
** ComicBook/TheJoker gains diplomatic immunity once by [[ComicBook/ADeathInTheFamily being appointed as an ambassador to the United Nations]]. (He was initially said to be representing Iran, but that was apparently deemed [[strike:implausible]] beyond the bounds of bad taste -- it was retconned so that he represented the fictitious {{Qurac}}. Yes, [[TropeNamer that one]].)
** The writer (Jim Starlin) seems to have liked this trope; he used it earlier in "Ten Nights of the Beast" and "The Diplomat's Son". In the former, Batman ends up trapping the [=KGBeast=] and walking away, presumably to let him starve to death (well, until it was retconned), while in the latter it's suggested that Jason Todd shoved the diplomat's son off a high balcony.

* In Creator/DCComics' CrisisCrossover ''ComicBook/FiftyTwo'', [[ComicBook/{{Shazam}} Captain Marvel]]'s enemy ComicBook/BlackAdam kills a supervillain right in front of a news crew -- by ''ripping him in half with his bare hands'' -- but is not arrested presumably because he was standing over the embassy of Kahndaq which, as a general rule, he rules (at least until he is TakenForGranite a few months later).
* In Creator/JossWhedon's first ''ComicBook/AstonishingXMen'' run, after the X-Men (mostly the newly-resurrected Colossus) put the beat-down on the alien conqueror Ord, Nick Fury and a squad of ComicBook/{{SHIELD}} agents show up with heavy ordnance, claiming that Ord has diplomatic immunity. As ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} replied in the next issue, "Diplomatic [[ClusterFBomb #%@* &%!!@#$@%#%$##@@#$$%$#@#]] [[SymbolSwearing $$#%$#@#$%#%@$#$@$&&&%&@&$#%$##%&&&@&!!]] immunity?"

* In an episode of ''Radio/TheGoonShow'' ("The Case of the Missing CD Plates"), the steamroller which runs down Neddie Seagoon has CD (Corps Diplomatique) plates, preventing him from suing for injury. He is then tricked into screwing CD plates onto a piano that struck him on the head, so that the villains who dropped it on him can claim diplomatic immunity.

* ''Comicbook/FantasticFour'': ComicBook/DoctorDoom, as ruler of Latveria, enjoys the head-of-state version when on official visits, but he's fair game when visiting on other occasions.

** In one Fantastic Four story, Reed Richards and his family go to Latveria and take it over briefly so they can dismantle Doom's assets while he's suffering from a temporary death. They're eventually challenged by Comicbook/NickFury and arrested due to breaking international law by occupying the country, regardless of the fact that they're removing the tools Doom used to oppress the populace. Eventually it's pointed out to Fury that in addition to being a murderous tyrant, Dr. Doom broke international law and committed horrible crimes just about every other day on both his own and foreign soil, yet somehow neither the United Nations or any authority ever revoked his diplomatic immunity or attempted to remove him from power. This has never been brought up again.

* In Creator/JossWhedon's first ''ComicBook/AstonishingXMen'' run, after the X-Men (mostly the newly-resurrected Colossus) put the beat-down on the alien conqueror Ord, Nick Fury and a squad of Comicbook/{{SHIELD}} agents show up with heavy ordnance, claiming that Ord has diplomatic immunity. As ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} replied in the next issue, "Diplomatic [[ClusterFBomb #%@* &%!!@#$@%#%$##@@#$$%$#@#]] [[SymbolSwearing $$#%$#@#$%#%@$#$@$&&&%&@&$#%$##%&&&@&!!]] immunity?"

* ''Comicbook/TheAvengers'':
** #130 deals with the team heading to North Vietnam for the Swordman's funeral, where they find that a trio of communist supervillains (Radioactive Man, Crimson Dynamo and Titanium Man) have formed a team called the Titanic Three and allied themselves with the Viet Cong. When Comicbook/IronMan tries to pick a fight with them, it's pointed out that thanks to UsefulNotes/RichardNixon's [[UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar 1973 ceasefire]], the villains have complete immunity and can't be attacked without causing an international incident. However, the Titanic Three later make the mistake of attacking the Avengers in Saigon (located in South Vietnam), which gives the heroes the opportunity to actually fight back without fear of violating any treaties.
** In another issue, Klaw attempts to force Comicbook/BlackPanther to make him the new king of Wakanda so that he can attack the nation of Rudyarda without fear of reprisal.

* In ''ComicBook/HouseAndPowersOfX'', one of the big status quo changes involved in founding the mutant nation of Krakoa is that it demands diplomatic immunity for '''all''' mutants in any nation that signs its treaties. This is directly demonstrated in ''House Of X'', where the Fantastic Four capture Comicbook/{{Sabretooth}} after he commits some murders in New York. ComicBook/{{Cyclops}} asks the heroes to turn him over, but they refuse. But as soon as the US signs up with Krakoa, ComicBook/EmmaFrost rescues him from the American justice system with the power of diplomatic paperwork. (He winds up facing much harsher justice when he returns to Krakoa.)

* {{Inverted}} in ''[[FanFic/RainbowDoubleDashsLunaverse The Glass Kingdom]]''. When the Zaldian StateSec attempts to arrest Trixie and Lyra for stealing the Platinum Armory, Trixie reminds them that both of them are official ambassadors of Equestria and by treaty, Zaldia has to contact the Equestrian embassy and wait for a government representative. The StateSec agent hits her over the head and abducts the both of them anyway. He explicitly confirms later that Zaldia knows this is against the treaty, and they don't care.

** The first one being Lila exaggerating her mother's position within the embassy and finding out that her mother's immunity doesn't extend to her. One such example is ''FanFic/BurningBridgesBuildingConfidence'', where Mrs. Rossi isn't high up enough for her whole family to have diplomatic immunity; only she does. However, Marinette points out that Lila clearly ''thinks'' that she's covered, and that her behavior only proves how rotten people can be when they think they won't have to face any consequences for their actions.

* In ''FanFic/WithThisRing'', it's brought up a couple of times.
** Count Vertigo's diplomatic immunity (see ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'' below) leaves him as the only member of the Injustice League to avoid going to prison, which infuriates Paul because the man was ''blatantly'' part of a supervillain plot that killed hundreds of people. Even later on, he cites it as one of the reasons he doesn't agree with the way this universe handles villains.

* The heroine of ''{{Series/The Blacklist}}'' has been framed as a Russian Sleeper Agent responsible for, among other crimes, the bombing of a CIA building. To escape arrest by the compromised law enforcement, she runs into the Russian Embassy seeking sanctuary. Her FBI colleagues pursue her to the gate, and have to be reminded they cannot march into what is essentially foreign soil.

-->'''Schiff:''' ''(to Ross)'' You make one heck of a meter maid...

* ''Series/{{Bones}}''
** In one episode, the murderer is covered by diplomatic immunity. The lab crew comes up with a scheme to get around it, but Booth shuts them down, on the grounds that the standard of diplomatic immunity is too important to be damaged. It's then subverted by the fact that the immunity only applies to ''foreign'' prosecution -- they can still hand the evidence over to the murderer's own government and let them try the case. Unfortunately for the diplomat in question, [[spoiler: [[HollywoodLaw individuals don't have the authority to waive their own immunity short of defecting]]]]. In addition, Booth's original plan to have [[spoiler:the diplomat's son]] declared '''persona non grata''' wouldn't have let him prosecute, either -- at best it would have gotten him recalled to his home country.
** In another episode, it also turns out that the perpetrator is supposedly covered by diplomatic immunity due to being Egyptian, yet there's no mention of him actually being a ''diplomat''. Somehow, [[HollywoodLaw all Egyptian tourists are diplomats]], to judge by the episode's logic.
*** Though in this case, they don't really cite that it's diplomatic immunity. He's a super computer hacker who managed to erase all traces of his identity and create himself a new one, which happened to be an Egyptian citizen. The implication might have been that he'd simply tricked the system into thinking he was a victim of mistaken identity, which prompted the Egyptian government to try to protect one of their citizens from foreign harassment. They don't really specify. Caroline just says "He's an Egyptian citizen and we can't touch him."

* The ''Series/{{Hunter}}'' episode "Rape & Revenge" had [=DeeDee McCall=] being raped by a South American diplomat who claimed immunity when Hunter tried to arrest him--and ''shot'' Hunter just to twist the knife further.
** [[spoiler: Obviously, since this is [[CowboyCop Hunter]] we're talking about, he traveled to the guys' home country and killed him, [[KarmaHoudini and surprisingly, didn't get punished for it by the State Department.]]]]

* "''Book 15: Delegates and Delegation''" of ''WebComic/SchlockMercenary'' has (some of) Tagons Toughs be given Diplomatic Immunity cards to assist in their job of escorting some foreign ambassadors. One of the officers realizes that, by merely handing over one of the appropriate ID cards to Schlock, [[https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2014-03-22 she is now potentially open to future charges of War Crimes]]. Although all he usually tries to get up to is [[https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2014-07-18 avoid tickets]] for things like jumping off of walkways (not like he'd be hurt if things went wrong anyway). Also:

* ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice''. Count Vertigo has this as a member of the Vlatavan royal family, and brags to Kid Flash that he can't be sent to Belle Reve unless it could be proven he commited crimes against his own country, despite having been previously caught operating as part of the Injustice League deploying giant monster plants to wreak havoc around the world, which seems like a bridge too far for diplomatic immunity to apply to. [[spoiler:Kid Flash fools him into making an EngineeredPublicConfession of conspiring to arrange the death of his niece Queen Perdita, enabling her to revoke his immunity on the grounds of treason and attempted regicide.]]

[[caption-width-right:484: [[TemptingFate "Looks like you finally cracked the case,]] [[VisualNovel/AceAttorneyInvestigationsMilesEdgeworth Mr. Edgeworth."]]]]