A defense to negligence that protects the government against lawsuits for tort without its consent.

• A. Immunity
• B. Sovereign immunity; governmental immunity
• C. Governmental immunity
• D. Public immunity

Answer: (B)

Sovereign immunity is the defense that prevents the government from being sued for torts without its consent. This protection comes from the idea that a sovereign entity cannot be liable in its own courts unless it agrees to be, and modern law often provides limited waivers through statutes or acts. The paired term governmental immunity is used to describe related protections for government actors and entities, but the core concept remains sovereign immunity. The other terms aren’t standard descriptions of this doctrine: immunity alone is too vague, public immunity isn’t a recognized term in this context, and using governmental immunity by itself doesn’t name the fundamental restraint on suing the government.