ABSTRACT
This chapter revisits that question of West and East in two of its most prominent guises: medieval literature and modern law. Chaucer's 'Man of Law's Tale' is not the lead-off story in The Canterbury Tales, but, as the first expressly religious narrative on the heels of four romances and bawdy tales, it is often seen as reflecting 'a new beginning' to the work. It is therefore surprising to discern in Marshall's reasoning a series of judicial errors which, although subtle, go far to undermine the absolute nature of his immunity theory. Marshall's self-undermining fundamentalism has therefore become a trademark attitude for an historic narrative that both immunizes and exposes foreign sovereigns caught up in the processes of law. The historic compromise in sovereign immunity cases came with the development of a restrictive immunity doctrine, replacing the former absolute theory of jurisdiction.
