Abstract
The title of this chapter, State Immunity and Sovereign Bonds, requires some clarification. When speaking of “sovereign” bonds, the attribute does not suggest that the bonds in question are privileged in any way as sovereign. In fact, the opposite is true as such bonds, more precisely the placing of such bonds on the capital markets, from the perspective of international immunity law, are regarded as private or commercial acts, i.e. as acta iure gestionis for which the state does not enjoy immunity. The attribute sovereign refers to the state as one of the parties in the commercial transactions that underlie the issuance of bonds...