Torts in UK Foreign Relations

Can English courts hear tortious claims for wrongs allegedly committed by British armed forces and security services during their overseas operations? Should English courts hear such claims? What law governs issues raised by such claims? Can foreign judgments given on such claims be recognised and enforced in the UK?

Many questions such as these have arisen in relation to cases dealing with the tortious liability of the UK government and its officials for extraterritorial public acts committed during the conflicts in Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq, and the 'war on terror'. Torts in UK Foreign Relations examines the English courts' treatment of such issues and offers a better understanding of this contested area of private international law. It shows that a defining characteristic of such tortious claims is that they are often subjected to the choice-of-law process and lead to the application of foreign law. Further, the author clarifies the nature of the doctrines operating in this field, maps out the relationship between different jurisdictions and rules that are engaged, and criticises the current approach to choice-of-law, while arguing that English tort law should play a more prominent role.

Comprehensive and methodological, Torts in UK Foreign Relations will appeal widely to academics, practitioners, and students in the fields of private international law, foreign relations law, tort law, and public law.

Ugljesa Grušic, Associate Professor, UCL

Dr Uglješa Grušic is an associate professor at the Faculty of Laws, University College London, where he teaches private international law, international arbitration, and tort. Before joining UCL, Grušic taught at the University of Nottingham, London School of Economics and Political Science, and the University of Belgrade. He is the author of The European Private International Law of Employment (2015), co-author of Cheshire, North & Fawcett: Private International Law (15th edn, 2017) and co-editor of Civil Remedies and Human Rights in Flux (2022). Ugljesa won the 2015 ASIL Private International Law Prize and the inaugural 2012 ICLQ Young Scholar Prize.

PART I Introduction
1. Introduction
PART II Jurisdiction of Courts and Acts of State
2. Crown Acts of State
3. Jurisdictional Immunities and Foreign Acts of State
4. Whose Act of State?
PART III Choice of Law
5. Torts in Foreign Relations and Choice of Law
6. Law Governing the Tortious Liability of the UK Government
7. Law Governing the Tortious Liability of UK Government Officials
8. Law Governing Defences
9. Pleading and Proof of Foreign Law
PART IV Foreign Judgements
10. Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgements
PART V Summary and Way Forward
11. Summary and Way Forward