Sovereign Immunity and Arbitration - State as a Party to Arbitration: What does the immunity Shield Cloak?

Abstract

SummaryThe thesis discusses State involvement in arbitration as a result of greater participation of States in international trade. Although arbitration has its plus points when dealing with disputes involving States, it also has its fair share of limitations and problems. A key shortcoming of the arbitral process is the defense of state immunity that States can invoke at any stage of the arbitral proceedings and the overwhelming protection it affords not only the State but also its entities. This problem is compounded given that state immunity laws differ between different jurisdictions and there exists no supranational law that governs sovereign immunity. The focus of this thesis is to look closely at the state immunity laws in different jurisdictions, the current position regarding sovereign immunity in arbitration, and the limitations of the various conventions and codifications that address the issue of enforcement of an arbitral award.