Emergence of a Specific Rule of State Immunity

Abstract

Beginning with the middle of the nineteenth century the focus of transnational litigation involving foreign states began to shift from public ships and personal sovereigns to trade activities and contractual obligations of foreign states. This shift in focus appears to have taken place in some countries earlier then in others. As this occurred, a specific rule on state immunity, strictu sensu, began to emerge. Its development followed two different trends in various jurisdictions, in the direction of either restricted immunity or absolute immunity. Cases involving public ships and personal sovereigns did not suddenly disappear, however. Particularly in those jurisdictions favouring absolute immunity, the first statements of a clear doctrine of absolute immunity were still made in connection with cases involving foreign public ships. The following survey will cover a necessarily selected number of jurisdictions of which records are available, representing one or the other of the above mentioned trends.