Legal Issues

Sovereign immunity offers protection to the government against legal actions while statutory immunity protects individuals in specific situations against legal action. This paper will explore the differences that exist between statutory and sovereign immunity.

 Difference between Sovereign and Statutory Immunity
Sovereign immunity is an act of common law which stipulates that the government shall not be held liable for any wrong actions in tort. It is derived from an old English principle which assumed that the King could not do anything wrong. In the United States, sovereign immunity is applied to bar individuals from suing the government, the state as well as the local authority in tort. Therefore, for anyone to sue the sovereign government, it has to consent to it first (Varone 2007, p.250).

On the other hand, statutory immunity refers to an act that protects specific individuals against legal actions. Protection from liability under statutory immunity differs from state to state. In some states, it applies in the tort claims acts whereas in others it only applies in certain situations or individuals. This differs from sovereign immunity which applies uniformly in all states (Varone 2007, p.265).

Further still, statutory immunity used under tort claims acts usually applies in acts that are performed during a governmental function whereas the ones that are not under tort apply in governmental, proprietary, functionary as well as discretionary acts. It covers such individuals as good Samaritans, fire departments, providers of emergency medical services as well as AED stakeholders (Varone 2007, p.266).

This is different from sovereign immunity which covers only individuals working under the government. More to the point, sovereign immunity only offers protection to governments when performing a governmental function while proprietary function of the government is not protected from liability. Broadly therefore, sovereign immunity protects only a specific group of individuals as it only relates to governmental functions whereas statutory immunity covers a diverse group of individuals (Varone 2007, p.263).