Abstract 

More than a century ago, the law of nations drew a red line which no nation was allowed to cross. This line was called sovereign immunity. The rules were pretty straightforward — “no sovereign state” in the words of Lord Denning, “should be impleaded in the courts of another sovereign state against its will”. “Why has the whole civilized world concurred in this construction?, Justice Marshall pondered as far back as 1812 and concluded that "a foreign sovereign is not understood as intending to subject himself to a jurisdiction incompatible with his dignity, and the dignity of his nation". This proposition was “absolutely” true in 1812. But how true is it in 2024…