The Shift in Stances of African States on Foreign State Immunity and Chinese Responses
Since independence,African states,based on the interests of safeguarding national sovereignty and seeking equality and fairness,influenced by the legal systems of the suzerain states,as well as engulfed by the global mainstream trend of restrictive immunity,most of them have shifted from absolute immunity to restrictive immunity.The practices of restrictive immunity in those African states have taken different forms.Some states have enacted domestic law to restrict the immunity of foreign states,some states have adopted judicial practices to restrict the immunity of foreign countries,and more states have joined in international treaties that contain restrictive immunity clauses.As an important aspect of foreign relations,foreign state immunity can make a significant impact on relationships between different states.For China-Africa cooperation,in the context of joint construction of the high-quality"Belt and Road'by both sides,with the increasingly close civil and commercial exchanges between China and African states,the shift of African states to restrictive immunity will have an important impact on China-Africa cooperation,especially will bring certain risks and challenges to Chinese sovereign entities.In view of this,China needs to pay attention to the new trends in the stances and practices of African countries on state immunity,and respond in two dimensions:pre-prevention and post-response,based on the overall climate of maintaining friendly cooperation between China and Africa.Specifically,on the one hand,China should conduct in-depth investigation on the issue of state immunity in African states and actively cooperate with African states in international legislative and judicial dialogue and on state immunity;on the other hand,Chinese state-owned enterprises may choose whether to raise state immunity defenses based on different situations when they are sued in courts of African states,and the Chinese government and its branches should attach importance to and fully utilize the diplomatic opinion mechanism when filing lawsuits in African courts,thus to make contributions to promoting China-Africa cooperation in the era of great changes.
state immunityAfricaabsolute state immunityrestrictive state immunityChina-Africa cooperation
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