References: [1939] AC 256
Coram: Lord Atkin
The House considered the weight to be given to a certificate as to a statement by HM government as to the recognition of the defendant as a sovereign state: ‘Our State cannot speak with two voices on such a matter, the judiciary saying one thing, the executive another. Our Sovereign has to decide whom he will recognize as a fellow sovereign in the family of States; and the relations of the foreign State with ours in the matter of State Immunities must flow from that decision alone.’
This case is cited by:
- Cited – Alamieyeseigha, Regina (on the Application Of) -v- Crown Prosecution Service Admn (Bailii, [2005] EWHC 2704 (Admin), Times 16-Jan-06)
The defendant argued that as Governor and Chief Excecutive of Bayelsa State in Nigeria he had sovereign immunity. The Foreign Office had issued a certificate that the defendant was not a Head of States under the 1978 Act. The A-G of Bayelsa had . .