No Immunity for Diplomats Who Hold Domestic Workers in Conditions of Modern Slavery
The U.K. Supreme Court issued an important decision last week in Basfar v. Wong. The Court held that a diplomat who allegedly kept a domestic employee in conditions of modern slavery was not immune from suit because the alleged conduct brought the suit within the commercial activity exception to immunity under the Vienna Convention on…
Continue ReadingRussia Should Not be Designated a State Sponsor of Terrorism
Editor’s Note: This article also appears in Just Security.
Members of Congress and President Zelenskyy of Ukraine have called for U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to designate Russia a state sponsor of terrorism, and late last month the Senate Foreign Relations Committee reported out a resolution to this effect. The designation would have important…
Continue ReadingWhen Terrorists Default, Should Courts Consider Personal Jurisdiction?
A case from last week, Kaplan v. Hezbollah, illustrates the intricacies of consent-based personal jurisdiction in the context of default judgments and raises questions about the due process rights of terrorist organizations (and other unpopular defendants). U.S. citizens injured by Hezbollah missile attacks in Israel sued under the Antiterrorism Act (ATA). Hezbollah did not enter…
Continue ReadingJob Opportunities at the American Society of International Law
The American Society of International Law (ASIL) is hiring for several positions, including Executive Director. They also have fellowships for students and other opportunities. More information here.
Continue ReadingRecent Scholarship on Political Economy and the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act
Professor Maryam Jamshidi (@MsJamshidi) just published an article highlighting the relationship between capitalism and the law of foreign sovereign immunity, especially in the United States. The article includes a detailed and rich account of current developments under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA). It comes as no surprise that the United States (and other global actors)…
Continue ReadingThrowback Thursday: The Ottoman Empire, the Capitulations, and War
Yes, the “capitulations” are often the stuff of very old books, the kind of books frequently discarded, the ones that you see heaped up sadly on the sidewalk in the rain next to libraries making space for people to surf the internet. Books, that is, like Nasim Sousa’s, The Capitulatory Regime of Turkey: Its History,…
Continue ReadingHavlish Plaintiffs File a Potentially Misleading Brief Claiming Entitlement to Afghan Central Bank Assets
The 2021 return of the Taliban to power in Afghanistan has led to litigation in the United States over the assets of the Afghan Central Bank (“DAB”). As I explained in an earlier post, an executive order by President Biden froze about $7.0 billion in DAB assets held in New York. A license from the…
Continue ReadingCVSG in Usoyan v. Turkey: Can Turkey Use Force in the United States to Protect Its President?
A violent clash in Washington, D.C. between Turkish security forces and protestors has led to civil litigation with interesting questions about the authority of foreign security details and the immunity to which foreign governments are entitled. Turkey has petitioned for certiorari, and the Supreme Court has shown an interest in the case by calling for…
Continue ReadingThrowback Thursday: Foreign Sovereign Immunity in 1970
A fascinating and obscure book from 1970 discusses the relationship between domestic and foreign state immunity, the power of the executive branch over immunity, reciprocity, and – of course – the legislative reforms that would several years later become the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act. The American Law of Sovereign Immunity, published in 1970 by Theodore…
Continue ReadingAfghan Central Bank Assets Should Be Immune in Cases against the Taliban
Victims of terrorist attacks who obtained default judgments against the Taliban have requested the turnover of Afghan central bank assets frozen by U.S. sanctions. Because these assets are protected by foreign sovereign immunity and because no exception to immunity is applicable, courts should not order the assets turned over to the judgement-creditor plaintiffs, despite the terrible injuries that they and their families have suffered.
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