CNN, Associated Press Quote Professor Dodge on U.S. Recognition of MBS' Immunity in Khashoggi Murder

Professor William S. Dodge was quoted by the Associated Press and CNN and wrote on his Transnational Litigation Blog about the State Department’s recognition on Nov. 17 that Crown Prince Muhammed bin Salman (MBS) is entitled to head-of- state immunity as prime minister of Saudi Arabia in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Khashoggi was killed in Instanbul in October 2018, allegedly on the orders of MBS.

Head-of-state immunity “is almost automatic,” Dodge told CNN. “I think that’s why he was appointed prime minster is to get out of this.”

Professor Dodge is Martin Luther King Jr. Professor of Law and John D. Ayer Chair in Business Law at UC Davis School of Law. He is a leading expert on international law, international transactions, and international dispute resolution and a founding editor of the Transnational Litigation Blog (TLB). He served as Counselor on International Law to the Legal Adviser at the U.S. Department of State from 2011 to 2012 and as a reporter for the American Law Institute’s Restatement (Fourth) of Foreign Relations Law from 2012 to 2018. Professor Dodge is a co-author of Transnational Business Problems and Transnational Litigation in a Nutshell, and a co-editor of International Law in the U.S. Supreme Court: Continuity and Change, which won the American Society of International Law’s 2012 certificate of merit. He has authored more than 70 other publications in books and law reviews.