Michael L Nash revists the Sultan case to investigate issues of sovereignty & immunity
The recent case of R (Sultan of Pahang) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2011] EWCA Civ 616, [2011] All ER (D) 243 (May) raised a number of important issues, legal, political and constitutional. The original case had been brought by the Sultan claiming that, as a head of state, he was entitled to immunity from immigration controls by reason of s 20(1) and possibly s 5 of the State Immunity Act 1978 (the 1978 Act).
Sovereignty
This immediately brought into focus the question of sovereignty, who is a sovereign, and what sovereignty means. This is an issue which has been the subject of serious discussion over a very long period. The Peace of Westphalia in 1648, which brought the Thirty Years’ War to a close, is often considered as a crucial point in the evolution of the concept of sovereignty. It was then that the idea of not interfering in another state’s affairs really gained momentum, and, with it, the opposing notion that all states
