DIPLOMATIC COURIERS. — These are the persons responsible for transporting the official correspondence of diplomatic agents (v.). By virtue of the right recognized to the latter to correspond freely with their governments, they enjoy a limited immunity, which consists essentially in the inviolability of the packets entrusted to them and exemption from the jurisdiction of the States through which they pass.
Under Art. 12 of the Lateran Treaty, “couriers dispatched in the name of the Supreme Pontiff enjoy in Italian territory, even in time of war, the same treatment accorded... to the cabinet couriers of other foreign governments, according to the rules of international law.”
BIBL.: In addition to that indicated under V. Agente diplomatico, cf. C. Hurst, Les immunités diplomatiques, in Recueil des cours de l'Acad. de droit international, 1926, II, p. 227 ff.