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 power asymmetries. 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, one that is shaped by global inequalities. Drawing on observations from the courthouse, interviews with litigants and judges, and the analysis of case files, Miriam Driessen demonstrates how immunity is debated and delegitimized, or affirmed, by those who fight, exact, grant, or weigh immunity. From the construction site to the registrar’s office and into the courtroom, Driessen documents tussles over immunity, unravelling the politics of dignity on which they are founded.

Miriam Driessen is a Departmental Lecturer at the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography, University of Oxford, and the author of Tales of Hope, Tastes of Bitterness: Chinese Road Builders in Ethiopia.