Defining Sovereign Assets for Immunity from Execution: International Rule of Law Versus International Law - Based Rule of Law

Abstract

Sovereign assets receive restrictive sovereign immunity based on their purpose and/or use for execution of States’ commercial liabilities. The forum States’ courts decide the question of immunity of these assets. Due to lack of effective international conventions, these judgements result at inconsistent outcomes. Rule of law can be applied to mitigate this inconsistency. However, the objectives of rule of law vary for the national and the international legal order. Moreover, the divergence in group-interests of States and mandate of international organizations have failed to agree on a uniform definition of international rule of law. Thereby, this paper suggests international law-based rule of law as an alternative approach. International law-based rule of law aims at achieving the same objectives as domestic legal order, but, by the tools of international laws. Finally, it proposes to develop an inter-States consensus-based model law to have uniform principles of sovereign assets’ immunity in international law.