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ICJ jurisdiction--Arbitral Agreement of 1899-1966 Geneva Agreement--UN secretary-general's reference as basis of jurisdiction--non-appearance of Venezuela ARBITRAL AWARD OF 3 OCTOBER 1899 (GUYANA V. VENEZUELA). 2020 ICJ Rep. 455. At https://www.icj-cij.org/en/case/171. [...]

I. Introduction 58 II. Constitutional Provisions 62 III. Legislation 64 IV. Common Law 66 A. Teemal v. Guyana Sugar Corp. (1982) 66 B. Rambachan v. Trinidad and Tobago Television Co. [...], It may be taken to be a general principle of Caribbean jurisprudence that foreign states and their agents enjoy certain immunities from the jurisdiction of domestic courts and domestic law enforcement agencies. Clarification of the scope of this immunity is important because of the increasing presence of foreign governmental activity in commercial and economic developmental transactions in the region. Foreign sovereign immunity has not, however, been provided for in the constitution or by the legislature of any independent Commonwealth Caribbean state, (with, possibly, the qualified exception of Belize) and the courts have been left to navigate as best they can through the thorny doctrinal problems to which the subject gives rise. This article surveys the present law as best divined from the sprinkling of potentially relevant constitutional and legislative provisions and common law cases on the subject. This article then considers both the general requirements for legislative intervention as well as recent challenges that strengthen the case for legislative involvement. It echoes what is now a distinct judicial call for amplification of the law by the legislatures in the Caribbean.