For the purposes serving documents upon a foreign government under section 12(1) of the State Immunity Act 1978, transmission is achieved by e-mail when the e-mail arrives in the electronic depository of the recipient state (para 7).
Where, therefore, the applicant applied for a declaration that all documents required to be served to institute its claim against the state for moneys due under loan agreements had been validly served by e-mail pursuant to CPR r 6.44 and section 12(1) of the State Immunity Act 1978–
Held, application granted. That having sent four e-mails through the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the State of Syria and having not received any undeliverable notification message, the documents required to be served on the state had been validly transmitted (paras 10, 11, 14).
Adrian Beltrami QC and Hannah Glover (instructed by Allen & Overy llp) for the applicant.
The state did not appear and was not represented.