The State Immunity ACT 1978

More than 45 years after its adoption, the State Immunity Act 1978 remains the principal source of rules as to the immunities and privileges of foreign States and related persons before the courts of the United Kingdom. Although the legislative text has changed relatively little in that period, the ever-growing body of case law in the UK courts has more clearly defined its contours and limitations and clarified its relationship with other rules of municipal and international law.

This work provides a detailed commentary on the provisions and operation of the State Immunity Act 1978 in the United Kingdom as well as the surrounding legal framework. Delivering a comprehensive section-by-section analysis, it outlines the context, background, and legislative history to the Act. Furthermore, it explores the Act’s relationship to other aspects of domestic law and to international law, including common law, the European Convention on State Immunity, customary international law, human rights instruments, and other international law immunities and conflict of laws rules. In examining this remarkable and influential piece of legislation, the work highlights issues that remain controversial and proposes solutions to the doctrinal and practical difficulties that arise when applying its provisions.

Written by authors with significant experience in dealing with issues of immunity as practitioners as well as extensive knowledge of the surrounding academic debates, this commentary provides expert guidance for practitioners and judges faced with questions of state immunity law in the UK and internationally, and will be of great value to academics with an interest in this branch of international law.

Andrew Dickinson, Professor of the Conflict of Laws and Fellow and Senior Tutor of St Catherineâs College, University of Oxford, Alexander Thompson, Barrister, Twenty Essex

Andrew Dickinson is Professor of the Conflict of Laws and a Fellow and Senior Tutor of St Catherine’s College at the University of Oxford. He is an Honorary Senior Fellow at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law, and a long-standing member of the UK Ministry of Justice’s Advisory Committee on Private International Law (Mance Committee). Andrew is also one of the specialist editors of Dicey, Morris and Collins, The Conflict of Laws (16th edition, Sweet & Maxwell, 2022) with responsibility for chapters on the law applicable to contractual and non-contractual obligations.

Alexander Thompson is a barrister at Twenty Essex in London. He has an international and commercial law practice with particular specialisms in public international law, arbitration, and the conflict of laws. Alexander appears in arbitration and court proceedings in England and worldwide for and against governments, State-entities, international organisations, corporate clients, and individuals.