Lawsuits filed in U.S. courts against China over COVID-19 violate international law
By Huang Jin
The recent lawsuits against China
over COVID-19 filed in U.S. courts are not just untenable, but constitute a
gross violation of international law and China’s national sovereignty.
Since March, some senators,
government officials, media outlets, think tanks and non-governmental
organizations in the U.S. have hyped up absurd arguments against China,
claiming that China should be held accountable and compensate other countries
for the COVID-19 pandemic.
Such instigation has led to
multiple legal actions against Chinese government over COVID-19 in the U.S.,
all demanding accountability and huge compensation from China.
According to the U.S. media, the
Attorney General for the State of Missouri filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District
Court for Eastern Missouri, demanding that the Chinese government take
responsibility and make compensations for the global pandemic. This is an
extreme rare case as it doesn’t always happen that a regional government of a
country tries to hold a sovereign state accountable through a domestic court.
At present, relevant scientific
issues revolving around the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic are gradually
turning into international political and public opinion topics requesting China
to take responsibility and make compensations, becoming a weapon for
international anti-China forces to manipulate public opinions.
The lawsuits against China over
the COVID-19 pandemic can be regarded as a battle between municipal law of
certain countries and the universally applicable international law.
The current lawsuits filed in the
U.S. against the Chinese government are all based on municipal laws of the U.S.
As a matter of fact, those who
attempt to sue a sovereign foreign state and handle affairs between countries
through domestic court and abuse of municipal law in total disregard of universally
recognized international law are actually using municipal law to confront
international law, using domestic rule of law to compete with international
rule of law, overturning international order with domestic order, and
substituting unilateralism for multilateralism.
Such despicable and yet typical
acts of the U.S. are the results of the country’s long-standing tradition to
pursue power politics and hegemonism, which represent grave destruction of the
international system with the United Nations (UN) at the core established after
World War II.
The Peace of Westphalia, established
at the Congress of Westphalia between 1643 and 1648, stipulated the principle
of independence and equality of sovereign state. After World War II,
the
basic principle of international law was later reaffirmed in Article 2 of Chapter
I of the UN Charter.
“The Organization is based on the
principle of the sovereign equality of all its Members,” said the UN Charter. Sovereign
equality was stressed in the first of all the principles the organization and
its members shall act in accordance with.
On the basis of the principle, a
sovereign state handling matters according to its sovereignty shall not be
compelled by the dictates of any other authority, and allows no external
interference; any other state or authority has no right to exercise its own
sovereignty in a sovereign state; the exertion of sovereignty rights of a
sovereign state shall only be restricted on a voluntary basis.
In addition, a sovereign state
shall not be forced into submitting international disputes concerning it to
arbitration or judicature, and its acts and property are not subject to the
jurisdiction of courts of a foreign country.
The integrity of a country’s
national sovereignty is inviolable. No authority can weaken the national
sovereignty of a sovereign state or deprive it of its national sovereignty.
It can be seen that the ludicrous
lawsuits filed in U.S. courts against the Chinese government, especially the
one filed by the Attorney General for the State of
Missouri in the U.S. District Court for Eastern Missouri, in fact constitute
serious violation of China’s national sovereignty, run counter to the
universally recognized principle regarding national sovereignty stated in the
UN Charter, and represent completely unlawful act that goes against
international law.
As the general principle of
international law puts clearly, “equals do not have authority over one another.”
On the theoretical basis of sovereign equality, the jurisdictional immunities
of states and their property are generally accepted as a principle of
international law.
In accordance with the principle, a
state and its property enjoy immunity from jurisdiction and
enforcement in foreign courts. In other words, courts of a country shall not accept
and hear lawsuit in which a foreign country is the defendant or the property of
a foreign country is the subject matter unless the foreign country concerned
agrees.
Obviously, because China enjoys
sovereign immunity, U.S. courts have no jurisdiction over China or its
property. Hence they cannot accept and hear lawsuits filed by American
companies or individuals against the Chinese government, including the civil
lawsuit filed against China by Missouri Attorney General.
Although some countries in the
world support restrictive immunity, which means the immunity of a foreign state
in their courts does not extend to suits based on its commercial or private
conduct, a considerable number of countries insist absolute immunity, so does
China.
The efforts of Chinese government
to fight against COVID-19 are sovereign acts or public acts rather than
commercial conduct. In this case, the country still enjoys sovereign immunity
and the U.S. courts have no jurisdiction over it.
(Huang Jin is president of the
Chinese Society of International Law.)
Lawsuits filed in U.S. courts against China over COVID-19 violate international law
Reviewed by PEOPLES MAIL
on
12:05
Rating:
No comments: