Sovereign immunity: Difference between revisions

===What [[sovereign immunity]] isn’t===

[[Sovereign immunity]] can’t immunise a sovereign against parts of a [[commercial contract]] it has already performed, since the aggrieved commoner doesn’t have to take action to recover sums it has already been paid. If the sovereign pays a sum owed, it stays paid. Immunity can’t help the sovereign here. It cannot — by legal means — recover moneys it has paid, 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, 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>.

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 will still need compelling arguments<ref>If the sovereign is in a developed country. If in Somalia, maybe not so much, but there your problem is not sovereign immunity so much as trading in Somalia.</ref>, which on our theory won’t exist  ''and it will have 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.