Constitutional law

It was clear from the authorities that the public policy exception exception to the “act of state” doctrine existed within very narrow limits. It is concerned with violations of international law and/or with very grave breaches of fundamental universal human rights.

Where a foreign state had compulsorily acquired property there was scope for a range of views as to which rights of the expropriated party were such that they ought to be recognised in a domestic court and there was no rule of international law, whether in the nature of a human right or otherwise, that in no circumstances could property be compulsorily acquired by a state without compensation at least where there was no element of racial or religious discrimination involved.