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Waivers Of State Sovereign Immunity And The Ideology Of The Eleventh Amendment, Jonathan R. Siegel

Duke Law Journal

States normally enjoy immunity from suit by private parties, but they may waive this immunity. The Supreme Court's steady contraction of other exceptions to the rule of state sovereign immunity has renewed interest in the previously little-discussed possibilities of waiver. This Article explores the boundaries of waiver doctrine. This Article shows that, prior to 1945, the Supreme Court-even as it enforced a broad, substantive rule of state sovereign immunity-applied a sensible doctrine of waiver that balanced the interests of states with those of private parties and the federal judicial system. The Court's traditional doctrine treated state sovereign immunity like the …