Lloyd's Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly
STATE IMMUNITY AND THE NEW YORK CONVENTION
Masood Ahmed*
CC/Devas v India
Does a state waive its right to sovereign immunity under the State Immunity Act 19781 (“SIA”) and thereby submit to the adjudicative jurisdiction of the English courts because it has ratified the New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign
* Associate Professor in Law, University of Leicester.
1. Also, see the European Convention on State Immunity 1972 and the United Nations Convention on Jurisdictional Immunities of State and their Properties 2004, which has influenced the English courts when considering the issue of state immunity and enforcement: see AIG Capital Partners Inc v Kazakhstan [2005] EWHC 2239 (Comm); [2006] 1 WLR 1420, [70]. On the nature of state immunity as one of the fundamental principles of the international legal order, see Jurisdictional Immunities of the State (Germany v Italy: Greece intervening) [2012] ICJ Rep 99 and Argentum Exploration Ltd v Republic of South Africa [2024] UKSC 16; [2024] 1 Lloyd's Rep 585; [2025] AC 555. For a discussion of the evolution of the doctrine of state immunity and the State Immunity Act 1978, see Lord Lloyd-Jones, “Forty Years On: State Immunity and the State Immunity Act 1978” British Institute of International and Comparative Law Grotius Lecture, Goodenough College, London, 18 October 2018.
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