Hostname: page-component-5c6d5d7d68-qks25 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-08T22:41:55.362Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Kuwait Airways Corporation v. Iraqi Airways Company and the Republic of Iraq

United Kingdom, England.  16 April 1992 ; 21 October 1993 ; 24 July 1995 .

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2021

Get access

Abstract

State immunity — Jurisdictional immunity — Separate entity — Commercial activity — United Kingdom State Immunity Act 1978, Sections 3 and 14 — Whether act performed jure imperii — Nature, not purpose, of act decisive — Definition of relevant act — Invasion of Kuwait and seizure of aircraft at Kuwait airport by Republic of Iraq — Sovereign act — Removal of aircraft by Iraqi Airways Company (“IAC”) — Iraqi legislation vesting title to aircraft in IAC — Subsequent operation by IAC in commercial services — Whether acts of IAC governmental in character — Distinction between acts before and after vesting of title

State immunity — Jurisdictional immunity — Foreign State — Service of writ — United Kingdom State Immunity Act 1978, Section 12(1) — Requirement that writ be served on Foreign Ministry of defendant State — Whether service on embassy with request for transmission to Foreign Ministry sufficient — Impossibility of service on Foreign Ministry as United Kingdom not represented in foreign capital at relevant time

International organizations — United Nations — Security Council — Decisions under Chapter VII of the Charter — Effects in municipal law — Resolution 687(1991) — Establishment of United Nations Compensation Commission to determine claims against Iraq arising out of invasion of Kuwait — Effect upon jurisdiction of national courts

War and armed conflict — Occupation — Seizure of property — Seizure of Kuwaiti aircraft by Iraq following invasion of Kuwait — Whether attracting sovereign immunity — Whether justiciable — Effect of transfer of aircraft to Iraqi State airline — The law of England

Type
Case Report
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)