For a lawyer who specialised in the arcane area of law known as “state immunity”, Hazel Fox was a remarkably influential figure. Her chosen subject is increasingly the cause of courtroom and political clashes. Fox, who has died aged 96, was one of the foremost authorities documenting the interaction between domestic and international legislation as aggrieved parties attempt to sue foreign governments for alleged torture, murder or financial misdeeds.
Her volume The Law of State Immunity, published in 2002 and already into its third edition (updated by her successor Prof Philippa Webb), analyses the cases through which the traditional, absolute freedoms enjoyed by states to engage in diplomatic relations have come under mounting pressure to give ground to other demands in an ever more interconnected world.
