Comparative Study on State Immunity Issues: A Common Topic in Contemporary International Public Law, Private International Law, and International Economic Law

Author: Gong Renren
Publisher:
Publication Date: 2005-10-01
Features: State immunity refers to the jurisdictional immunity enjoyed by a state and its property in foreign courts. Although state immunity has long been established as a universally accepted principle of customary international law, there has been a long-standing sharp opposition and divergence among countries regarding the scope of this principle. This book conducts a systematic comparative study of the practices and theories of state immunity from the early 19th century to the 1990s, with a particular focus on some of the most fundamental and complex issues surrounding contemporary state immunity. The main contents of this book include: the historical origins of state immunity, the historical development of positions on state immunity, the subject matter of state immunity, the issue of waiver of state immunity, the scope of jurisdictional immunity, the issue of enforcement immunity for state property, and several theoretical issues related to restrictive immunity, among others. Published in 1994, this book is now in its second edition. It was awarded the First Prize in Law of the Second National Education Ministry's Humanities and Social Sciences Research Achievement Award in 1999. Over the past decade and a half, there have been new developments in the national practices regarding state immunity, the most important of which is the adoption of the "United Nations Convention on Jurisdictional Immunity of States and Their Property" by the 59th Session of the United Nations General Assembly on December 2, 2004. To facilitate readers' understanding of the latest developments, this convention has been appended at the end of this book.