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10

               Immunity of the rulers of the Gulf States from
                      the jurisdiction of foreign courts

              THE PROBLEM OF JURISDICTIONAL IMMUNITIES OF
                             PROTECTED STATES
         The problem of the immunity of protected States and of their rulers
         from the jurisdiction of foreign courts arises from the generally
         accepted rule in international law that sovereigns and governments of
         independent States are entitled to jurisdictional immunities before
         foreign courts.1 The question is whether semi-sovereign, or not fully
         independent, States are, on the same footing as independent States,
         entitled to immunity from the jurisdiction of foreign courts.
           It seems that in practice the extent to which a State grants immunity
         from jurisdiction before its courts to rulers and governments of
         States under its protection is a matter of its own municipal law.
         Therefore, the question of granting immunity to such States is
         usually settled by a certificate issued by the executive; and the courts
         before which claims of immunity are put by such States generally re­
         gard the certificate as conclusive. But does this practice of granting
         immunity to not fully independent States indicate that there is a rule
         of international law to this effect?
         (a) Position of British Protected States before British courts
         It is clear from a number of decisions of English courts that these
         courts have constantly granted absolute immunity from their jurisdic­
         tion to rulers and governments of British protected States. However,
         it seems that English courts have acted in all, or the majority of, those
         cases on the advice of the authorities of the Crown, and thus treated
         the certificate received from those authorities as conclusive evidence
         regarding the immunity of the protected States concerned.2 Lord
         McNair explains the principle upon which British protected States
         are granted jurisdictional immunities before British courts by saying

           lOppcnheim, p. 272; Moore, A Digest of International Law, vol. II (1906),
         pp. 558-9; Hyde, 1, p. 813. And seeLe Parlement Beige (1880), 5 P.D. 197.
           2 For examples of granting jurisdictional immunities to rulers and governments
         of British protected States before British courts, sec the following cases: Mighell v.
         Sultan ofJohorc [1894] 1 Q.B. 149; Duff Development v. Government ofKelantan and
         Others [1924] A.C. 797; Sayce v. Ameer Ruler Sadiq Mohammed Abbasi Baha-
         walpur State [1952] 2 Q.B. 390; Sultan of Johore v. Abubakar Tunku Aris Bcndahara
         and Others [1952] A.C. 318.
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