In this article we look at what debt recovery options are available to you should a president, king, queen or head of state owe your business money. Picture the scene, you are having a normal day in the office and suddenly your pleasant calm surroundings are swarmed by armed secret service agents as the president of another country walks in. For arguments sake, let’s say it is POTUS (President of the United States). You agree to sell POTUS a carton of your finest product and in the adrenaline filled kerfuffle, no-one realises the payment didn’t go through until it’s too late and POTUS is back in the motorcade. As a business you are one carton and £1,000 short of balancing the books. For fear of being sued for defamation, going to the press is not an option. On paper, POTUS owes you £1,000 just like any other debtor would in the same situation. However, international law and UK legislation stand in your way.
International Law
The UK was amongst the first UN signatories of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations in 1961, an international treaty setting out the framework for how foreign embassies and diplomats can operate. It meant that state secrets and diplomatic missions could operate securely and confidentially on foreign soil. In 1964 it was brought into UK law through the Diplomatic Privileges Act. This formally placed diplomats outside scope of criminal and civil prosecution and prevented them being held to account for serving their country, hence the term Diplomatic Immunity.
UK Legislation
Building on the Vienna Convention, the State Immunity Act 1978 extends the same principles of diplomatic immunity to heads of state such as presidents and prime ministers. This affords immunity for offences carried out whilst acting in official and personal capacities. After leaving office personal capacity immunity lapses. The legal mechanisms for withdrawing immunity for actions carried out as head of state are few and tenuous.
The Dark Side of Diplomatic Immunity
One of the most high-profile cases this century demonstrating the extent of Diplomatic Immunity was the death of a 19-year-old British motorcyclist in Northamptonshire who was hit by an American diplomat driving on the wrong side of the road in 2019. The American government declined to waive her immunity as a serving diplomat in the field, and the grieving family have been deprived of British justice.
POTUS
Going back to our scene where you are a carton and £1,000 short of balancing the books, POTUS is covered under both the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and the State Immunity Act. Unfortunately, that money is as good as lost because the offence occurred whilst acting as head of state. This ultimately affords POTUS indefinite immunity. The only debt collection firms who would take on a debt barred by immunity are those with money to burn, desperately seeking their five minutes of fame on social media before facing professional reprimand and potential ruin.
The King & Your £1,000
Let’s replace POTUS with the King in our scene. Under British law, justice and all actions of state are carried out in the name of the head of state, or in other words the King. This affords him Sovereign Immunity from all civil and criminal proceedings. For example, if the King stole a shopping trolley, he could not be prosecuted using law sighting his own name as the barometer of justice. At last count there were over 160 laws specifically stating they are not binding on the monarch. This includes laws on the environment, animal welfare, and taxation. As the benchmark for ‘Britishness’ one would expect the King to fulfil his moral obligation to you and settle the £1,000 even though no legal obligation exists. However, if the King were to abdicate, Sovereign Immunity would pass from him to his successor and immediately open the door for debt recovery action on the £1,000.
When we mention Sovereign Immunity, notice ‘head’ of state is singular rather than plural. Sovereign Immunity does not extend to Queen Camilla, the Prince and Princess of Wales, or any other royals by bloodline, title or marriage. Both Princess Anne and Zara Tindall have served driving bans through justice carried out in the King’s name, with the former also receiving a criminal conviction in 2002 under the Dangerous Dogs Act.
It is a perverse irony that a diplomat can kill someone, and a president can get away with £1,000 of your finest product, yet princes and princesses face bailiffs if they don’t pay their debts! George Orwell’s notion of some being ‘more equal than others’ is diplomatic and state immunity in a nutshell.