The Study Of The State Immunity Issues When The Chinese Government Was Sued In The United States

State sovereign immunity principle is an important principle in moderninternational law, which plays an important role in the adjustment of national actionsand international relations. As national sovereign immunity involves a country’snational sovereignty, jurisdiction, diplomatic relations and other major issues, so thedebate about it has never stopped. The two most classic theory are the principle ofabsolute immunity doctrine principle and restrictive immunity doctrine of which thethe absolute immunity principles indicates that without the permission of a country, itcan not it can not be the defendant in a foreign court. Therefore, absolute immunityprinciple has become a strong weapon of safeguarding state sovereignty for a countryto protect itself while dealing with foreign countries. However, with the developmentof economy, the state economic function expanding, more and more countriesparticipate in international civil and commercial activities. National legal person,natural person bring more and more trade disputes between countries. In order toprotect their own economic interests, especially the interests of trans-national group,since end of the19th century, national position had limit exemption principle, restrictimmunity principles. The main idea is to divide the conduct a country, the country’ssovereign immunity, and national sovereignty behavior and no immunity for thebehavior of the property. Not until the second world war, the vast majority ofdeveloped countries prefer absolute immunity immunity principles to restrictiveimmunity principles. In2004, the59th UN general assembly adopted the "UnitedNations convention on jurisdictional immunities state and its property” whichrepresents the mainstream of the current international law, namely the position limitexemption.China has always been adhering to the principle of absolute immunity doctrine, butalong with the further deepening of reform and opening up, China’s foreign economicand trade activities increased a great deal of number, but most of our country’s maintrading partner apply restrictive immunity principles, especially the United States tobe specific. Whenever there are trade disputes with the U.S. in China, if we still stickto the absolute immunity principle of socialism, there will be no jurisdiction over theother country, while the other party adopt the principle of restrictive immunitydoctrine, it will have jurisdiction in our country, it is very detrimental to our country.Because of the long time insisting of absolute immunity doctrine, when the Chinesegovernment were sued in the United States, we tended to act as big country to ignorethe lawsuit. Only there really is not conducive to China’s decision made wouldseriously rise, the negative is made in China is always in a passive state immunityissue of disadvantage. Claims to enjoy absolute immunity, blindly to the United Statescourt had dismissed the litigation documents, will delay time, only make the legalrelief more difficult due to Chinese government’s passive attitude, the lack ofunderstanding of the relevant laws and indifferent response to lawsuits experience aswell which result the failure to protect our own rights and interests in lawsuits. WithChina’s further opening to the outside world, such lawsuits will further increase, howto prevent and resolve such litigation risk, fully understanding and using international law and related legal system to minimize damage and protect the lawful rights andinterests of our country have become a pressing task. Thus, this paper adopts themethod of comparative of laws, empirical analysis, and case study of which ourgovernment are sued in the United States, so as to conclude our country’s statesovereign immunity problems encountered in the process of dealing with suchlitigation. Finally, based on the situation of china, the necessity and feasibility analysisof the developing of the foreign sovereign immunities act. This paper is divided intothree chapters:The first chapter mainly elaborates the definition of state sovereign immunityprinciple, main content and range, presents four theory of country sovereign immunityby comparison and points out the principles of sovereign equality theory moreappropriate to the state sovereign immunity theory. Then comes the nationalsovereign immunity changing from "absolute immunity doctrine" to the "restrictiveimmunity doctrine" process and relevant legislation.The second chapter through the three typical case analysis of the Chinese governmentsued in the United States court, finding out the main issues, including the definition oflocal government subject qualification, distinguish between national sovereigntybehavior and business practices, execute waivers in differentiation of state propertyand state-owned enterprise property, etc.The third chapter divided into two parts, first is state the Chinese government’smain problems encountered in the process of litigation in the United Statesaccordingly put forward some countermeasures and Suggestions; in second part,based on the situation of China’s current legislation, illustrate the necessity andfeasibility for our country to develop the foreign sovereign immunities act.