Supreme Court Decides Cisco and Cimex
Earlier today, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down decisions in two significant transnational litigation cases. In Cisco Systems, Inc. v. Doe, the Court held that federal courts may not recognize any new causes of action under the Alien Tort Statute (ATS), “clos[ing] the door” on human rights litigation under the ATS and effectively overruling Sosa…
Continue ReadingRecognizing Governments, Recognition of Arbitral Awards
A company based in Barbados won an arbitral award against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (“Venezuela”) and petitioned to have it recognized and enforced in federal court in the United States. Venezuela objected on the ground that the arbitral panel allowed the Maduro regime to replace the lawyers that represented Venezuela – even though Maduro…
Continue ReadingModernizing Foreign Judgments Law
In 1895, the Supreme Court decided Hilton v. Guyot, the foundational case on foreign judgments law. The underlying lawsuit was straightforward. Two American entrepreneurs were sued in Paris by their French business associates in connection with a commercial dispute that occurred in France. When the plaintiffs prevailed, they brought their French money judgment to U.S….
Continue ReadingTrademarks and Foreign Forum Selection Clauses
The task of deciding whether a forum selection clause should be given effect can be burdensome. A federal court must evaluate whether the clause is valid. It must interpret the clause to determine whether it is exclusive and covers the claims asserted. And it must assess whether the clause is enforceable under the test laid…
Continue ReadingDistrict Court Rejects Constitutional Challenge to TVPA
On June 9, 2026, in Boniface v. Viliena, Judge Allison D. Burroughs (District of Massachusetts) rejected a challenge to the constitutionality of the Torture Victim Protection Act (TVPA), holding that the act applies extraterritorially to torture and extrajudicial killing between aliens and that Congress had authority to pass the act under the Offenses Clause of…
Continue ReadingThrowback Thursday: RJR Nabisco v. European Community
Ten years ago, on June 20, 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision in RJR Nabisco, Inc. v. European Community. The Court held that two of RICO’s criminal provisions apply extraterritorially to the same extent as RICO’s predicate offenses, but that RICO’s civil cause of action applies only when there is injury to…
Continue ReadingThe FSIA and Agreements to Aribtrate
The enforcement of foreign arbitral awards has led to contested questions about personal jurisdiction, about the scope ofthe arbitration exception to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA), and about the relationship between that exception and the New York Convention. A new case from the D.C. Circuit, Global Voice v. Republic of Guinea considers the scope…
Continue ReadingSovereign Immunity and Choice-of-Law Clauses
On its face, a choice-of-law clause selecting the laws of the United States (or a state within the United States) may seem irrelevant to whether a foreign nation has waived its sovereign immunity in U.S. courts. Over the years, however, a number of U.S. courts have held that a choice-of-law clause may, in fact, function as an implied…
Continue ReadingMontana Supreme Court Decides International Child Custody Case
The Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act discourages forum shopping in child custody disputes by assigning subject-matter jurisdiction to the court located in the “home state” of the child. In Allen v. Allen, decided on April 21, 2026, the Montana Supreme Court had to determine whether the child’s “home state” was Montana or the…
Continue ReadingThe Solicitor General Opposes Cert in Spain v. Blasket but Opens the Door to Future FSIA Challenges to Award Enforcement
Last week, in Kingdom of Spain v. Blasket Renewable Investments LLC, the Solicitor General (SG) weighed in on whether U.S. courts have jurisdiction to enforce arbitral awards arising from disputes between European investors and EU Member States—so-called “intra-EU” investment arbitrations. These awards have generated significant controversy around the world following landmark rulings by the Court…
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