The Diplomatic Privileges Act 1708 (7 Ann c 12) was an Act of the

Parliament of Great Britain The Parliament of Great Britain was formed in May 1707 following the ratification of the Acts of Union by both the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland. The Acts ratified the treaty of Union which created a new unified Kingdo ...

. It is also known as the Act of Anne or the Statute of Anne. It should not be confused with the Copyright Act 1710, also known as the Statute of Anne.

Background

The Act was passed as result of an incident in 1708 when the Russian Ambassador,

Andrey Matveyev Count Andrey Artamonovich Matveev (russian: Андрей Артамонович Матвеев) (1666–1728) was a Russian statesman of the Petrine epoch best remembered as one of the first Russian ambassadors and Peter the Great's agent in Lon ...

, was arrested and imprisoned by London bailiffs acting on behalf of his creditors. Matveyev was freed on bail, then left the country without presenting his

letters of recall Diplomatic correspondence is correspondence between one state and another and is usually of a formal character. It follows several widely observed customs and style in composition, substance, presentation, and delivery and can generally be categor ...

. To appease

Peter the Great Peter I ( – ), most commonly known as Peter the Great,) or Pyotr Alekséyevich ( rus, Пётр Алексе́евич, p=ˈpʲɵtr ɐlʲɪˈksʲejɪvʲɪtɕ, , group=pron was a Russian monarch who ruled the Tsardom of Russia from t ...

, the Act was passed, putting diplomatic immunity in Britain on a statutory basis for the first time.

Provisions

The Act provided for the nullity of all civil proceedings against ambassadors and their servants. It also provides that all those who institute such proceedings or attempt to enforce them shall "be deemed violators of the laws of nations" and be punished accordingly. The Act was said to be declaratory of the common law, although this has been doubted by later authorities.

Repeal

Section 6, to "pleading and" was repealed by section 1 of, and the Schedule to, the

Statute Law Revision Act 1887 The Statute Law Revision Act 1887 (50 & 51 Vict c 59) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. This Act was partly in force in Great Britain at the end of 2010. The enactments which were repealed (whether for the whole or any part of ...

. The whole Act was repealed by section 8(4) of, and Schedule 2 to, the Diplomatic Privileges Act 1964. It may be still in force in some

Commonwealth A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. Historically, it has been synonymous with "republic". The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the ...

jurisdictions.

References

The text of the act
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Halsbury's Statutes ''Halsbury's Statutes of England and Wales'' (commonly referred to as ''Halsbury's Statutes'') provides updated texts of every Public General Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, Measure of the Welsh Assembly, or Church of England Measur ...

, Great Britain Acts of Parliament 1708 Diplomatic immunity and protection {{GB-statute-stub