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The Law of State Immunity

Philippa Webb author Hazel Fox, QC author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Oxford University Press

Published:27th Aug '15

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The Law of State Immunity cover

Revised and updated to include recent developments since 2013, the third edition of The Law of State Immunity provides a detailed guide to the operation of the international rule of State immunity which bars one State's national courts from exercising criminal or civil jurisdiction over claims made against another State. Building on the analysis of its two previous editions, it reviews relevant material at both international and national levels with particular attention to US and UK law; the 2004 UN Convention on Jurisdictional Immunities of the State and its Property (not yet in force), and also seeks to assess the significance of recent changes in the evolution of the law. Although the restrictive doctrine of immunity is now widely observed by which foreign States may be sued in national courts for their commercial transactions, the immunity rule remains controversial, not only by reason of the recognition of a single State's right to deny a remedy for a wrong - China, a major trading State, continues to adhere to the absolute bar - but also by the exclusion of any reparation or relief for the commission on the orders of a State of grave human rights violations. The complexity and moral challenge of the issues is illustrated by high profile cases such as Pinochet, Amerada Hess, Saudi Arabia v Nelson and more recently NML v Argentina in national courts; Al-Adsani v UK and Jones v UK in the European Court of Human Rights; and Judgments of the International Court of Justice in Arrest Warrant, Djibouti v France and most recently in the Jurisdictional Immunities of the State, which, particularly since the 2014 contrary ruling of the Italian Constitutional Court, has attracted strong juristic criticism. The expanding extraterritorial jurisdiction of national courts with regard to torture in disregard of pleas of act of State and nonjusticiability as in Belhaj and Rahmatullah offers a further challenge to the exclusionary nature and continued observance of State immunity. Recent developments in key areas are examined, including: impleading; public policy and non-justiciability; universal civil jurisdiction for reparation for international crimes; the application of the employment exception to embassies and diplomats; immunity from enforcement and procedural measures; immunity of State officials, and tensions between national constitutional requirements and superior international norms.

The authors must be sincerely congratulated for this substantially revised edition of an already renowned treaties. Not only have they achieved an extremely useful update of the current law of State immunity by keeping up the high standard of the previous edition in terms of almost lexicographical tracing and recording of State practice and case law in numerous jurisdictions. This book is also an excellent attempt at re-conceptualising the notion of state immunity against the background of recent international case law. * Stephan Wittch, German Yearbook of International Law *
Review from previous edition '...outstanding analysis...well written and superbly documented work...a must have for any public or private collection shelving the classics of international legal literature.' * American Society of International Law *
'This in-depth study will be one of the most consulted works on international law. Those who specialize in new areas of international law, whether human rights, environmental law, or international criminal law, should certainly read it....This is a work of rigorous scholarship. As an authoritative monograph , it will be of inestimable value to practitioners. And its careful review of the many theoretical issues will be valuable in helping to fashion the law in many countries...' * Anthony Aust, International and Comparative Law Quarterly *
'Hazel Fox has long been known as the author of some the most probing scholarship on the relationship between international law and national law. In this substantial new volume, she sets out the most comprehensive and thoughtful analysis to date of a subect that is, as she so clearly demonstrates, no longer confined wither to immunities or to states....There is a great deal of interest and value in this book, both for scholars and practitioners. For specialists in the topic it will be an indispensable text.' * Alan Boyle, The Law Review Quarterly *
This is a work of rigorous scholarship. As an authoritative monograph, it will be of inestimable value to practitioners....The book is user-friendly in its detailed list of contents, lavish use of headings, and sub-headings, clear scene-setters for each chapter, regular summaries and a good index....State immunity is a difficult subject for students, teachers, and practitioners of international law, and there has long been need for a good book on it ... practitioners will have already found the book essential for their work, a sign of a book being instantly indispensable. * International and Comparative Law Quarterly *

ISBN: 9780198744412

Dimensions: 246mm x 171mm x 38mm

Weight: 1206g

704 pages

3rd Revised edition