“Waiting for the Heavens to Fall”: The Engineers Case and Intergovernmental Immunity

This article responds to Professor Nicholas Aroney’s anniversary contribution on the High Court’s decision in Engineers. While accepting Aroney’s statement that ‘the High Court has effectively abandoned the sweeping terms in which the idea of intergovernmental immunities was rejected in Engineers, it explores the degree to which this much-cited 1920 decision can still allow us to better understand the development of the intergovernmental immunity doctrine. In so doing, it traces the extent to which the doctrine’s progress draws on, at least in some respects, observations made by the Court in the Engineers case.