User:VivekM/Sovereign Immunity

Sovereign Immunity is a convention or doctrine in public international law whereby a sovereign state, recognising other states as sovereign, extends the courtesy of immunity from any action being brought in its own courts against them - when they, their government or head of state act in their sovereign capacity.

In some jurisdictions the doctrine operates as a bar to action (in some cases qualified) and in others it is available as a preliminary plea in defence. It may be be roughly be explained or paraphrased by saying that "Equals shall not suffer other equals to be judged and censured by their own subjects or servants".

Unlike Diplomatic immunity (which is not the same thing), the doctrine of soveregin immunity remains largely unlegislated in the international arena (few, if any, multi-lateral conventions, treaties etc). Even municipal statute law on the subject has developed only in the last 20 years, following the Tate letter in USA and Lord Denning's opinion in the Trendtex case in UK.

These developments recognised, in a global scenario of the expanding fields of state action, the need to differentiate between acts of an essentialy governmental/state/soveregin nature or capacity on one hand and commercial/trading activities or personal acts on the other; and the rationality of applying the doctrine only to the former.

Till then the doctrine was, usually, most rigidly applied in all cases; and still is in some countries. Where so, it particularly affects citizens seeking relief in respect of transactions made, in thier home countries, with foreign governments - even where the necessary action could have been brought but for the application of the doctrine. Also, in some states/nations the application of the doctrine sometimes prevents citizens from bringing action against their own governments.