On The Relationship Between State - Owned Enterprises And State And Their Property Exemptions

State immunity is an enduring topic, the theory and practice of which has been changed with the process of globalization. As economic exchanges of China with the international community grow, Chinese state-owned enterprises greatly speed up the pace of "going out". The problem of the relationship between state-owned enterprises and the state immunities became prominent.According to the United Nations Convention on Jurisdictional Immunities of States and their property and the practice of courts of many countries, unless having been authorized on behalf of the state sovereignty, state-owned enterprises cannot become the subject of state immunity because of its independent legal person qualification. The independence of state owned enterprises’ property makes it different from the state property in the narrow sense. In principle, they are not responsible for the debts of the each other. Some scholars however believe that the state-owned enterprises are under the control of the government. Hence the trading behavior of some of their business operations is not in the traditional sense, but has a national economic sovereign nature. They argue that these business operations should also obtain immunities of jurisdiction and execution. In the meantime, there are constantly lawsuits against Chinese state-owned enterprises in overseas courts. In some cases the court decisions even let Chinese state-owned enterprises to bear the state’s responsibility.Therefore, it is necessary to define the relationship between immunities of states and the state-owned enterprises, and to clarify their relationship in jurisdiction and execution aspects. And finally, recommendations would be made for Chinese state-owned enterprises concerning their overseas lawsuits related to this subject.