On November 19, 2014, the England and Wales High Court (the Court) ruled in Rahmatullah v. the Ministry of Defence that Iraqi civilians who were arrested by British forces in Iraq, transferred to U.S. custody, held for years without a trial, and allegedly tortured while detained, may proceed with their case against the U.K. Ministry of Defence.  The U.K. argued that the claims were barred by “the doctrine of state immunity and/or the doctrine of the foreign act of state [and] the doctrine of Crown act of state.”  Referencing the UN Convention on Jurisdictional Immunities of States and Their Property and international case law, the Court ruled that “the principles of state immunity recognised in public international law provide no justification for interpreting the [domestic British] State Immunity Act 1978 as granting immunity to the defendants.”  Additionally, even though the claimants were transferred to U.S. custody before the detention and alleged torture began, the Court decided that the doctrine of the foreign act of state is not “capable of barring any of the claims” brought by the claimants.  However, the Court did not decide on “whether violations of the claimants' rights by agents of the US took place,” only that the claimants’ case could move forward.