Project Summary
When should individuals have an entitlement to sue the state for compensation, restitution or injunction in respect of official action? When and how should public authorities and officials be entitled to sue in private law and hold ordinary private rights in a public context? Legal systems take a variety of approaches, which have been partly studied in the comparative law literature. The aim of the proposed research is to provide a general normative, philosophically-grounded, theory of state liability in respect of official action. In doing so, it will examine the nature of right-holding by and against the state/public authorities, the different possible moral bases for liability based on wrongs and permissible conduct, the extent to immunity rules can be justified , and which institutions ought to develop state liability law.
This is a 3 year Fellowship funded by the Leverhulme Trust, beginning in October 2024.
Current work – public private rights, and public immunities
Sandy is currently working on two papers connected to first part of the project. One examines possible justifications for ‘public’ immunities, based on the ideas of public office, standing and public necessity. It makes the argument that the state may incur compensatory duties by operating immunity rules, based on the idea of public necessity. The other examines the nature of right-holding by the state. It explores the implications of the simple fact that the state is not a ‘free and equal person’, a status which justifies some basic rights. It resists the thought that this prevents the application of relational ideas of rights and wrongings in the context of public liability, but argues against a strict separation of public law reasoning from determining the content of the state’s ‘private’ rights.
Project Updates
Further updates coming soon.
