Jones v. Ministry of Interior of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Case No. [2006] UKHL 26. At <http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld/ldjudgmt.htm>.

House of Lords, June 14, 2006.

The House of Lords handed down judgment in Jones v. Ministry of Interior of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on June 14, 2006. The case concerns an action in damages brought by Jones and three other applicants, all UK citizens, falsely accused of involvement in bombings in Riyadh in 2001 and 2002. The four allege that they were repeatedly tortured while in prison in Saudi Arabia and that they suffered severe psychological and physical harm as a result. Seeking aggravated and exemplary damages from Saudi Arabia's Ministry of the Interior and the Saudi officials allegedly responsible, the applicants filed claims of, inter alia, torture, assault and battery, trespass to the person, and unlawful imprisonment. In the proceedings before the Court of Appeal, Saudi Arabia claimed immunity on its own behalf and on that of its officials. The Court of Appeal agreed with the former but denied the latter; all the involved parties appealed the decision. The House of Lords agreed with Saudi Arabia by upholding state immunity in civil proceedings brought against a state and its officials in a different country for alleged torture.

A Subject of warm debate in the convention which framed the Constitution of the United States was where the power of making or declaring war should be vested.

The committee of detail reported in favor of giving Congress power “to make war.” Pinkney opposed this on the floor, preferring to bestow it on the Senate. That this was also the view of Hamilton appears in the draft of a constitution which he gave to Madison, towards the close of the convention. In the debate on the report, Pinkney urged that it “would be singular for one authority to make war, and another, peace.” Butler, who followed him, thought the President was the proper depositary. It was then moved to make the clause read “to declare war,” instead of “to make war.” Gerry said that he had “never expected to hear in a republic a motion to empower the executive alone to declare war.” Mason thought that neither the executive nor the Senate could safely be intrusted with the power of war; and finally the word declare was substituted for make by the large majority of States.

This new treaty edition is to be entitled Treaties and Other International Acts of the United States of America. The title requires some explanation as to its extent and limits. Agreements or acts which have gone into force are, with certain exceptions noted hereafter, included in the volumes of this edition now to be considered. Unperfected treaties, to use the current expression— agreements which have not gone into force—are in general, therefore, and subject to the exception mentioned below, excluded. It is to be observed that in a broad sense “unperfected treaties” include those which have been definitely rejected as well as those which are to be deemed pending; and there are also a few instances where an agreement was not formally acted on but is so ancient as to be obsolete. All those unperfected treaties, however, of whatever classification, are here omitted, with the exception of such of them as may be within one group of documents now to be mentioned.