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The Law of State Immunity. By Hazel Fox. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. Pp. lxiv, 572. Index. $135, cloth; $55, paper.
Not so long ago, a book on the immunity of foreign states came along once a generation, if that often. Such books, while perhaps not common, are no longer rare.1 In 2004, The Law of State Immunity by Hazel Fox was published in the United Kingdom. Fox, a Queen's Counsel, gives us an analytical work on the structure and theory of immunity, which also explores the practical questions encountered in litigating a case against a foreign state or a foreign-government-owned corporation.
One need not look far for the reasons for the change in the level of professional attention to foreign state immunity. One hundred years ago, most nations still adhered to theories of foreign state immunity that were more or less absolute.2 Under those theories, one could only bring a suit against a foreign state if that state waived its immunity, and in certain ill-defined cases involving disputes over title to property.3 Some countries in the civil law tradition had already moved to a more restrictive theory of immunity, and by 1950 most non-Communist states in the civil law tradition had done so.4 Mostly, this shift in civil law countries occurred through case law.5 Under the restrictive theory, foreign states were immune when they acted in a public capacity (acta jure imperii) and were not immune when they acted in a private capacity (acta jure gestionis). Today, nearly all states have adopted some form of this restrictive theory.
Common law countries continued to adhere to the absolute theory long after other democracies abandoned it, because common law courts declined to reconsider the old precedents establishing the absolute theory. Finally, during the period 1975 to 1985, many common law countries enacted statutes to implement the restrictive theory of state immunity.6 A quarter of a century later, there are numerous reported cases on the restrictive theory in common law countries, particularly the United States.7 There have been fewer decisions in other countries-whether within or without the common law tradition-if only because other countries have less litigation generally.
Hazel Fox's book was originally published in a hardbound edition in 2002. The new (2004) paperback edition includes an...