Sovereign immunity: Difference between revisions

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[[Sovereign immunity]] can’t immunise a sovereign against parts of a commercial contract she has already performed, since the commoner doesn’t have to take action in that case. If the sovereign pays a sum owed, it stays paid. The sovereign cannot — by legal means — require those moneys to be repaid, except by way of court action, and doubtless your [[legal opinion]]s will tell you that won’t work (and will operate to [[Waiver of immunities - ISDA Provision|waive]] sovereign immunity anyway)<ref>To be sure, a bossy sovereign can park its tanks on your lawn, waterboard you, and throw your children to its pet crocodiles of course, but this is a practical act, not a legal one and the [[JC]] cares not one whit for practical, extra-legal acts. What can one say about them, other than, “that was horrid”?</ref>.
[[Sovereign immunity]] can’t immunise a sovereign against parts of a commercial contract she has already performed, since the commoner doesn’t have to take action in that case. If the sovereign pays a sum owed, it stays paid. The sovereign cannot — by legal means — require those moneys to be repaid, except by way of court action, and doubtless your [[legal opinion]]s will tell you that won’t work (and will operate to [[Waiver of immunities - ISDA Provision|waive]] sovereign immunity anyway)<ref>To be sure, a bossy sovereign can park its tanks on your lawn, waterboard you, and throw your children to its pet crocodiles of course, but this is a practical act, not a legal one and the [[JC]] cares not one whit for practical, extra-legal acts. What can one say about them, other than, “that was horrid”?</ref>.


In the context of an {{isdama}}, therefore, all [[payments]], [[collateral]] and [[initial margin]] that a sovereign has ponied up<ref>Assuming you can persuade a sovereign to pony up initial margin of course.</ref> before it decides to cut your legs off, you keep. Your risk is the market movements between the point where it breaches your contract until you can close out your positions.
In the context of an {{isdama}}, therefore, all payments, [[collateral]] and [[initial margin]] that a sovereign has ponied up<ref>Assuming you can persuade a sovereign to pony up initial margin of course.</ref> before it decides to cut your legs off, you keep. Your risk is the market movements between the point where the [[sovereign]] breaches your contract until you can [[close out]] your positions. [[Netting]] also works, because it is a self-help mechanism that doesn’t oblige you to take legal action to enforce it.


If the sovereign wants to dispute payments it has already made it can either (i) dangle your children over its crocodile pit and ask you what you plan to do — again this is extra-legal behaviour and the [[JC can’t really comment on it (other that to agree it is horrid); or (ii) take action against you in a court of law ''in which case it has waived its [[sovereign immunity]] [[QED]]''.
If the [[sovereign]] wants to dispute payments it has already made it can either (i) dangle your children over its crocodile pit and ask you what you plan to do — again this is extra-legal behaviour and the [[JC]] can’t really comment on it (other that to agree it is horrid); or (ii) proceed against you in a court of law ''in which case it has waived its [[sovereign immunity]] [[QED]]''.


So one can get a little hyperventilatey about sovereign immunity. It isn’t ''that'' bad. As long as you don’t mind your children being fed to crocodiles.
So one can get a little hyperventilatey about sovereign immunity. It isn’t ''that'' bad. As long as you don’t mind your children being fed to crocodiles.

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