On UNRWA’s Immunity
[This post originally appeared at TWAILR and is reprinted here with the author’s permission.] The U.S. government’s attack on the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), and indeed on the UN itself, has taken on new form. After instituting an extended freeze on U.S. funding to the…
Continue ReadingMalta Refuses to Enforce $740 Million U.S. Judgment
On February 13, 2025, a Maltese court refused to enforce a $740 million default judgment issued by the 15th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida (Palm Beach County) in a defamation suit brought by Mehmet Tatlici (“Mehmet”) against his half-brother, Ugur Tatlici (“Ugur”). The Florida court’s award—issued on January 8, 2020, in a defamation suit filed…
Continue ReadingHalkbank Files New Cert Petition
Halkbank, a Turkish state-owned bank accused of violating U.S. sanctions on Iran, filed a petition for certiorari last week seeking a second chance to convince the Supreme Court that it is immune from criminal prosecution in the United States. In its first trip to the Court, back in 2023, Halkbank argued that it was entitled…
Continue ReadingCVSG in Wye Oak v. Republic of Iraq: Is it Time to Resolve the FSIA “Direct Effect” Circuit Split?
On April 28, 2025, the Supreme Court called for the views of the Solicitor General (colloquially a “CVSG”) in Wye Oak Tech., Inc. v. Republic of Iraq. This is the latest chapter in a decades-long attempt by Wye Oak (discussed in a separate blog post) to recover damages for the breach of a contract it…
Continue ReadingThe Impossibility of Schrödinger Service
In quantum physics, a system can exist in two states at the same time. When the system is observed, it settles into one of those states. The physicist Erwin Schrödinger found this notion somewhat absurd. In a thought experiment, he imagined a cat in a closed box with a flask of poison and a radioactive…
Continue ReadingDemystifying Borrowing Statutes
A borrowing statute is a law directing the courts in one jurisdiction to “borrow” the shorter statute of limitations of another jurisdiction. Borrowing statutes are common in the United States—thirty-six states have enacted them—but they are largely unknown in the rest of the world. In this post, I seek to demystify borrowing statutes for the…
Continue ReadingNinth Circuit Addresses Common Law Immunity from Criminal Prosecution
Two years ago, in Turkiye Halk Bankasi A.S. v. United States (Halkbank) (2023), the U.S. Supreme Court held that the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) does not apply to criminal proceedings and remanded the defendant’s claim of common law immunity to the Second Circuit. On remand, the Second Circuit deferred to the executive branch’s determination that Halkbank was not…
Continue ReadingDismissal for Forum Non, With Two Alternative Fora?
The Fourth Circuit recently considered whether dismissal for forum non conveniens is appropriate if the case would have to be bifurcated and heard in two separate courts in the country that provides an alternative forum. In AdvanFort Co. v. Zamil Offshore Services Co., the court answered “yes,” with one judge dissenting. This might have been…
Continue ReadingFederal Court Issues Worldwide Anti-Enforcement Injunction
Last month, Judge Edward Davila (Northern District of California) granted a motion by Google for a rare type of equitable relief: a worldwide anti-enforcement injunction. In Google v. Nao Tsargrad Media, a Russian media company obtained a judgment against Google in Russia and then began proceedings to enforce it in nine different countries. Arguing that…
Continue ReadingWhen Is a Securities Transaction “Domestic” Under Morrison?
In Morrison v. National Australia Bank (2010), the Supreme Court held that § 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act applies only to “transactions in securities listed on domestic exchanges, and domestic transactions in other securities.” This holding doomed the securities fraud claims in Morrison because the plaintiffs purchased their shares on the Australian Securities Exchange….
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