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State Immunity Act 1979

2020 REVISED EDITION

This revised edition incorporates all amendments up to and including 1 December 2021 and comes into operation on 31 December 2021

An Act to make provision with respect to proceedings in Singapore by or against other States, and for purposes connected therewith.

[26 October 1979]

PART 1

PRELIMINARY

Short title and application

1.—(1) This Act is the State Immunity Act 1979.

(2) Subject to subsection (3), Part 2 does not apply to proceedings in respect of matters that occurred before 26 October 1979 and, in particular —

(a)	sections 4(2) and 15(3) do not apply to any prior agreement; and
(b)	sections 5, 6 and 11 do not apply to any transaction, contract or arbitration agreement,

entered into before that date.

(3) Section 14 applies to any proceedings instituted after 26 October 1979.

Interpretation

2.—(1) In this Act —

“commercial purposes” means purposes of any transactions or activities that are mentioned in section 5(3);

“court” includes any tribunal or body exercising judicial functions;

“ship” includes a hovercraft.

(2) In this Act —

(a)	references to an agreement in sections 4(2) and 15(3) include references to a treaty, convention or other international agreement; and
(b)	references to filing and service of a notice of intention to contest or not contest (formerly known as entry of appearance) and judgments in default of a notice of intention to contest or not contest (formerly known as judgments in default of appearance) include references to any corresponding procedures. [Act 25 of 2021 wef 01/04/2022]