Act of State Doctrine

The act of state doctrine provides that U.S. courts will not question the validity of an official act of a foreign government fully performed within its own territory. The act of state doctrine is a doctrine of federal common law that is binding on state courts as well as federal courts. There are several exceptions to the doctrine, including one for expropriations in violation of international law created by Congress in the Second Hickenlooper Amendment, 22 U.S.C. 2370(e)(2).

A Primer on the Act of State Doctrine

The act of state doctrine is a federal common law doctrine providing that courts in the United States will not question the validity of an official act of a recognized foreign government fully performed within its own territory. The doctrine is often applied in cases like Banco Nacional de Cuba v. Sabbatino (1964) to require…

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John Harrison, The American Act of State Doctrine, 47 Geo. J. Int’l L. 507 (2016) (SSRN)

Chimène I. Keitner, Adjudicating Acts of State, in Foreign Affairs Litigation in U.S. Courts 49 (John Norton Moore ed., 2013) (SSRN)

Gregory Fox, Reexamining the Act of State Doctrine: An Integrated Conflicts Analysis, 33 Harv. Int’l L.J. 521 (1992) (Wayne State)

Louis Henkin, Act of State Today, Recollections in Tranquility, 6 Colum. J. Transnat’l L. 175 (1967)