When the Other Party Is a Nation: International Commercial Arbitration with Sovereign States
The number of international commercial arbitration disputes involving sovereign states has grown dramatically over the past two decades. Governments today are active participants in global commerce — contracting for infrastructure, energy, defense systems, and technology — and when those contracts go wrong, arbitration is increasingly the forum of choice.
But arbitrating against a sovereign state is not the same as arbitrating against a private counterparty. The doctrine of sovereign immunity, the challenge of enforcing awards against state assets, and the intersection of public international law with commercial practice create a landscape of complexity that demands specialized knowledge.
International Commercial Arbitration with Sovereign States, by William T. O'Brien, published by Edward Elgar Publishing (2026), addresses this exact intersection. O'Brien — Partner and Head of Cross-Border Litigation and International Commercial Arbitration at Eversheds Sutherland, and Adjunct Professor at Georgetown Law — brings decades of front-line experience to a comprehensive treatment of the legal, procedural, and strategic dimensions of these disputes.
The book examines how sovereign immunity operates at each stage of the arbitral process, from jurisdiction to enforcement. It analyzes the frameworks under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA), the UK State Immunity Act, and equivalent regimes across jurisdictions. It addresses the practical challenge of identifying and reaching state assets, and the strategic considerations that shape counsel's approach when the opposing party is a government.
For university law libraries, this is a core acquisition for collections in international arbitration, international commercial law, and public international law. For practitioners, it fills a gap between the broad treatises on commercial arbitration and the specialized investment treaty arbitration literature — providing focused, practical guidance for the commercial cases that arise from state contracts.
Who should read this book?
International arbitration practitioners and law firms handling cross-border disputes. In-house counsel at multinational corporations contracting with governments. Academics and researchers in international law and dispute resolution. Government lawyers involved in commercial arbitration. Arbitral institutions seeking updated reference material on sovereign party disputes.
Why it matters now:
As global supply chains restructure, energy transitions accelerate, and governments expand their commercial activities, disputes between private parties and sovereign states will continue to grow. O'Brien's work provides the analytical framework and practical tools to navigate this expanding field.