INTRODUCTORY NOTE ON THE UN CONVENTION ON JURISDICTIONAL IMMUNITIES OF STATES AND THEIR PROPERTY

摘要

On December 2, 2004, the UN General Assembly adopted the UN Convention on Jurisdictional Immunities of States and Their Property. See UNGA Res. 59/38 (Dec. 2, 2004) (adopted without a vote). The treaty was opened for signature on January 17, 2005, when Austria and Morocco became the first states to sign. Since then, Portugal and Belgium have also signed. The Convention will enter into force when thirty states have deposited their instruments of ratification, acceptance, approval, or accession with the UN secretary-general. This new treaty is the first modern multilateral instrument to articulate a comprehensive approach to issues of state or sovereign immunity from suits in foreign courts. It embraces the so-called "restrictive theory" of sovereign immunity, under which governments are subject to essentially the same Jurisdictional rules as private entities in respect of their commercial transactions. The Convention builds on experience under the 1972 European Convention on State Immunity, May 16, 1972, ETS No. 74, at , reprinted in 11 ILM 470 (1972), as well as on state practice under various domestic statutory regimes. See, e.g., State Immunity Act, 1978, c. 33 (UK), reprinted in 17 ILM 1123 (1978); Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976, Pub. L. No. 94-583, 90 Stat. 2891 (1916), reprinted in 15 ILM 1388 (1976) (codified as amended at 28 U.S.C. §§1330,1391(f), 1441 (d), 1602-1611) [hereinafter FSIA]. For additional statutory materials, see ANDREW DICKINSON, RAE LINDSAY, & JAMES P. LOONAM, STATE IMMUNITY: SELECTED MATERIALS AND COMMENTARY (2004), and Materials on Jurisdictional Immunities of States and Their Property, UN Doc. ST/LEG/Ser.B/20 (1982). Generally, see HAZEL Fox, THE LAW OF STATE IMMUNITY (2002).