ABSTRACT
Chapter 10 deals with the concept of immunity in international law. It elucidates the distinction between State immunity, the principle of non-justiciability, and an act of State doctrine in the light of the recent judgments of the UK Supreme Court. It comments on the evolution of State immunity in the UK and its scope of application under the UK 1978 State Immunity Act and the common law. It discusses the US Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act and its amendments which provide for the terrorism exception to State immunity and the US Justice Against State Sponsored Terrorism Act that has widened the scope of the terrorism exception and can potentially deny any foreign State immunity in civil claims if they are found to be sponsors of terrorism. It examines the first global codification of rules on State immunity achieved by the 2004 Convention on Jurisdictional Immunities of States and Their Property. It analyses the extent of immunity granted to diplomats and the staff of a diplomatic mission by the 1961Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, which was implemented in the UK through the 1964 Diplomatic Privileges Act. It discusses the immunity of intergovernmental organisations (IGOs) and challenges to that immunity before the European Court of Human Rights.
