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.
Miriam Driessen is an anthropologist and the author of Tales of Hope, Tastes of Bitterness: Chinese Road Builders in Ethiopia.
"Immunity on Trial reveals in a breathtaking way how the court systems are leveraged by Ethiopian citizens to challenge the overbearing influences of multinational corporations. Driessen goes against the grain of the prevailing narrative that touts the African judiciary as weak by compellingly showing how the court systems assert independence through landmark cases. The book is intellectually stimulating, ethnographically rich, and refreshingly unique in its approach to the anthropological study of Africa."—Omolade Adunbi, author of Enclaves of Exception: Special Economic Zones and Extractive Practices in Nigeria
"Miriam Driessen brilliantly demonstrates that immunity is a key concept for understanding contemporary global hierarchies. Immunity on Trial describes the construction of states of exception in which some have vastly different rights than others. This book's depiction of people struggling for dignity in the face of global inequality is a major contribution to studies of Chinese-African relations."—Daniel Mains, author of Under Construction: Technologies of Development in Urban Ethiopia
"Immunity on Trial is not only a fascinating study of Ethiopia’s local courts but also an ambitious examination of the social and political challenges ushered in by China’s unprecedented investments across Africa. The book provides a window for a clear look at the local manifestations of the global transformations in what has been dubbed the Chinese Century."—Kwai Hang Ng, coauthor of Embedded Courts: Judicial Decision-Making in China
218 pp.6 x 9Illus: 2 b/w figures, 3 b/w maps
9780520421295$34.95|£30.00Paper
Feb 2026