5 Immunity of Foreign States (Sovereign Immunity)

The doctrine's arc — absolute to restrictive:1. The classical absolute immunity:The Schooner Exchange v. McFaddon (US, 1812, Marshall C.J.) — the friendly sovereign's ship in the port is exempt from local jurisdiction: comity's and equality's doctrine ("the perfect equality and absolute independence of sovereigns");2. The restrictive (qualified) doctrine's rise: state trading's growth forced the distinction — acta jure imperii (sovereign acts: immune) vs. acta jure gestionis (commercial/private acts: not immune) — the Tate Letter (US State Department, 1952) announcing the shift; the statutes implementing it (the UK State Immunity Act 1978, the US Foreign SovereignImmunities Act 1976, the UN Convention on Jurisdictional Immunities of States and Their Property (2004, the codification not yet in force)) with the exceptions' catalogue: commercialactivity, contractual dealings, employment (non-diplomatic), torts in the forum(territorial tort — the personal-injury exception), immovable property, arbitrationsubmissions, counterclaims, waiver;3. The case-law:Trendtex (UK, 1977) — the grain-import case; the Court of Appeal adopting restrictive immunity (with the " Tvair" doctrines of precedent's own drama); Pinochet (No. 3)(UK, 1999) — the former head of state not immune from extradition proceedings for torture (torture's international crime, the Torture Convention's structure, and the ex-head's immunity's lapse — ratione personae gone, ratione materiae pierced for torture's non-sovereign nature under the Convention); Jurisdictional Immunities (Germany v. Italy, ICJ 2012) — Italy's judgments against Germany for WWII wrongs…