State immunity—Employment—Human rights

The Employment Appeal Tribunal has held that certain provisions of the State Immunity Act 1978 breach Art 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights, and that the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union requires those provisions to be disapplied insofar as they bar employment law claims that are within the material scope of EU law.

Paul Luckhurst (instructed by Islington Law Centre) for B. James Holmes Milner (instructed by Freemans Solicitors Ltd) for the Republic of Sudan. Paul Luckhurst (instructed by Islington Law Centre) for J. Oliver Assersohn (instructed by MS-Legal) for Libya. 

Two cases were heard together before the Employment Appeal Tribunal, as they raised the common issue of state immunity. In the first, the employee was a cook at the Sudanese embassy. In the second, the employee was a member of the domestic staff at the Libyan embassy. When each brought a claim arising out of their employment (the claims