Constitutional

Sovereign immunity - libel action against civilian employee at US military base in England - immune from suit at common lawHolland v Lampen-Wolfe: HL (Lord Hope of Craighead, Lord Cooke of Thorndon, Lord Clyde, Lord Hobhouse of Woodborough and Lord Millett): 20 July 2000

The plaintiff, an American university professor, was seconded to teach at a US military base in England.

The defendant, a civilian employee of the US Department of Defense responsible for training programmes at the base, sent a memorandum to a superior in the course of his employment questioning the plaintiff's professional competence.

The plaintiff contended that the memorandum was untrue and defamatory and issued a writ for libel in the High Court.

The master set aside the writ on the ground that the proceedings impleaded a foreign state and were covered by state immunity.

The deputy judge dismissed the plaintiff's appeal.

The Court of Appeal (see [1998] Gazette, 23 September); [1999] 1 WLR 188 upheld the judge's decision.

The plaintiff appealed.

Lord Lester of Herne Hill QC and Pushpinder Saini (instructed by Mishcon de Reya) for the plaintiff.

Christopher Greenwood QC (instructed by Nabarro Nathanson) for the defendant.Held, dismissing the appeal, that the defendant was not entitled to immunity under s.1(1) of the State Immunity Act 1978 since, by s.16(2) of the Act, s.1(1) did not apply to proceedings relating to anything done by or in relation to the armed forces of a state while present in the United Kingdom; that the defendant was, however, entitled to immunity under the common law since the provision of education for military personnel was part of a state's sovereign function of maintaining its armed forces and the defendant had been acting as an official of the United States in the course of the performance of that sovereign function; and that, accordingly, since the United States' claim to immunity in respect of the plaintiff's claim against the defendant had been well founded, the decision to set aside the writ would stand.

(WLR).