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Immunity on Trial: Ethiopian Courts, Chinese Corporations, and Contestations over Sovereignty
*Hybrid event* For webinar registration please use the link below.
Book launch & discussion with Miriam Driessen.
Political and legal immunity are justified by the principle that certain social aims outweigh the value of imposing liability. To be exempt from the rules, however, is a privilege granted to or demanded by the powerful. The structural disparities that underpin immunity can turn it into an unjust prerogative, one that is inscribed by global inequalities. Set against the backdrop of an extraordinary wave of litigation against Chinese corporations in Ethiopia, Immunity on Trial probes the question of immunity in everyday encounters steeped in highly asymmetrical power relations. Drawing on observations from the courthouse, interviews with litigants, judges, and court support staff, and analyses of case files, Miriam Driessen demonstrates how immunity is debated and delegitimized—or affirmed—by those who fight, exact, grant, or weigh it. From the construction site to the police station, from the registrar’s office into the courtroom, she documents tussles over immunity, unraveling the politics of dignity on which they are founded.
www.ucpress.edu/books/immunity-on-trial/epub-pdf
Dr Miriam Driessen is Departmental Lecturer in Social Anthropology at the University of Oxford. Miriam’s research explores Chinese-led development from below, looking at issues such as migration, labour, gender and sexuality, language, and, more recently, law. She is the author of Tales of Hope, Tastes of Bitterness: Chinese Road Builders in Ethiopia.
Date:
3 March 2026, 16:00
Venue:
13 Bevington Road, 13 Bevington Road OX2 6NB
Venue Details:
Seminar Room, African Studies Centre
Speaker:
Dr Miriam Driessen (University of Oxford)
Organising department:
Centre for African Studies
Organisers:
Norman Aselmeyer (University of Oxford),
Mwangi Mwaura (Oxford),
Biruk Terrefe (University of Oxford),
Jason Mosley (University of Oxford)
Part of:
Northeast Africa Forum seminar series
Booking required?:
Recommended
Booking url:
https://events.teams.microsoft.com/event/e908791a-0b51-4cb7-b33e-d90dc00bc1cc@cc95de1b-97f5-4f93-b4ba-fe68b852cf91
Audience:
Public
Editor:
Jason Mosley
