Sovereign Immunity - Suits Against The United States, Suits Against The States, Suits Against Foreign Governments
law doctrine sued judicial
The legal protection that prevents a sovereign state or person from being sued without consent.
Sovereign immunity is a judicial doctrine that prevents the government or its political subdivisions, departments, and agencies from being sued without its consent. The doctrine stems from the ancient English principle that the monarch can do no wrong.
FURTHER READINGS
Doernberg, Donald L. 2004. Sovereign Immunity and/or the Rule of Law: The New Federalism. Durham, N.C.: Carolina Academic Press.
Durchslag, Melvyn R. 2002. State Sovereign Immunity: A Reference Guide to the United States Constitution. Westport, Conn.: Praeger.
Siegel, Jonathan R. 2003. "Waivers of State Sovereign Immunity and the Ideology of the Eleventh Amendment." Duke Law Journal 52 (April).
Additional Topics
Not until 1946, however, did Congress address the issue of liability for torts committed by the government's agencies, officers, or employees. Until 1946 civil servants could be individually liable for torts, but they were protected by sovereign immunity from liability for tortious acts committed while carrying out their official duties. But the courts were not always consistent in making t…
The Court proceeded to apply this two-part test in a series of cases. In Florida Prepaid Post-secondary Education Expense Board v. College Savings Bank, 527 U.S. 627, 119 S.Ct. 2199, 144 L.Ed.2d 575 (1999), the Court ruled that the state of Florida could invoke its sovereign immunity to block federal lawsuits against it by a bank charging it with patent and trademark law violations. The Court foun…
Until the twentieth century, mutual respect for the independence, legal equality, and dignity of all nations was thought to entitle each nation to a broad immunity from the judicial process of other states. This immunity was extended to heads of state, in both their personal and official capacities, and to foreign property. In the 1812 case of The Schooner Exchange v. M'Faddon, 11 U.S. (7 C…
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