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Lady Hazel Mary Fox

Lady Hazel Mary Fox
Honorary Fellow, Somerville College, University of Oxford

Biography Biography in PDF

States
Immunity
State Immunity: The Absolute and
Restrictive Doctrines and New Challenges
The doctrine of State immunity, the subject of inquiry in high-profile national decisions such as those in Altmann, Alvarez-Machain, Pinochet and Kuwait Airways, and the Arrest Warrant and Djibouti/France cases in the International Court of Justice, is the subject of the lecture examining how the present international law balances the regulatory discretion of governments over their internal administration with the access to justice and the protection of human rights of individuals, with particular reference to the extension of State immunity to Heads of State and other officials.

Video | Audio
(18/10/2011, 55 minutes)
States
Immunity
State Immunity: The Absolute and Restrictive Doctrines and New Challenges
A. Legal Instruments
International

International Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules relating to the Immunity of State-owned Vessels, Brussels, 10 April 1926, and Additional Protocol, Brussels, 24 May 1934, League of Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 176, p. 199.

Charter of the United Nations and Statute of the International Court of Justice, San Francisco, 26 June 1945.

Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, Rome, 4 November 1950, European Treaty Series, No. 005, as amended by Protocols No. 11 and No. 14.

European Convention for the Peaceful Settlement of Disputes, Strasbourg, 29 April 1957, European Treaty Series, No. 023.

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, New York, 16 December 1966, United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 999, p. 171.

European Convention on State Immunity, Basel, 16 May 1972, European Treaty Series, No. 074.

Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, Rome, 17 July 1998, United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 2187, p. 3.

United Nations Convention on Jurisdictional Immunities of States and Their Property, New York, 2 December 2004.

National

United States, Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, United States Code, Chap. 97 (1976).

United Kingdom, State Immunity Act (1978).

B. Jurisprudence
International

European Court of Human Rights, Al-Adsani v. the United Kingdom, no. 35763/97, Judgment of 21 November 2001 (Grand Chamber).

International Court of Justice, Arrest Warrant of 11 April 2000 (Democratic Republic of the Congo v. Belgium), Judgment of 14 February 2002, I.C.J. Reports 2002, p. 3.

International Court of Justice, Jurisdictional Immunities of the State (Germany v. Italy: Greece intervening), Judgment, I.C.J. Reports 2012, p. 99.

National

The Schooner Exchange v. McFaddon, 11 US 116 (1812) 7 Cranch. 116.

The Parlement Belge (1879-90) 5 Prob. Div. 197 (CA). 31.

Mighell v. Sultan of Johore (1894) 1 QB 149.

Republic of Argentina v. Weltover Inc. (91-763), 504 US 607 (1992).

Nelson v. Saudi Arabia (91-522), 507 U.S. 349 (1993).

United Kingdom, House of Lords, In Re Pinochet, Oral Judgment: 17 December 1998, [1999] UKHL 1.

German Federal Supreme Court, Greek citizens v. Federal Republic of Germany (2003), International Law Reports, vol. 129, p. 556.

Italian Court of Cassation, Ferrini v. Federal Republic of Germany (2004), International Law Reports, vol. 128, p. 658.

United Kingdom, House of Lords, Jones v. Ministry of Interior Al-Mamlaka Al-Arabiya AS Saudiya (the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) and Others, Judgment of 14 June 2006, [2006] UKHL 26.

C. Documents

D. Doctrine
D. Akande, “International Law Immunities and the International Criminal Court”, American Journal of International Law, vol. 98, 2004, p. 407.

I. Brownlie, Principles of Public International Law, Chapter 16, 7th edition, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2007.

A. Cassese, International Criminal Law, Chapter 14, 2nd edition, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2003.

R. Cryer/H. Friman/D. Robinson/E. Wilmshurst, An Introduction to International Criminal Law and Procedure,Chapter 20 (Immunities), 2nd edition, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2010.

J. Dellapenna, Suing Foreign Governments and Their Corporations, Chapter 16, 2nd edition, Transnational Publishers, 2004.

Dicey/Morris/Collins, On the Conflict of Laws, Chapter 10.1, 14th edition, Sweet & Maxwell, 2006.

A. Dickinson/R. Lindsay/J.P. Loonam, State Immunity: Selected Materials and Commentary, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2004.

H. Fox, The Law of State Immunity, 2nd edition, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2008.

J. Salmon, “La Résolution de Naples de L’Institut de droit international sur les immunités de juridiction de l’Etat et de ses agents en cas de crimes internationaux (10 septembre 2009)”, Revue belge de droit international, 2009, p. 316.

D.P. Stewart, “The UN Convention on Jurisdictional Immunities of States and their Property”, American Journal of International Law, vol. 99, 2005, p. 194. 

R. Wolfrum (editor), Encyclopaedia of Public International Law (short articles on Acts of State, State Immunity, Immunity of Head of State), 3rd edition, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2008.