Expropriation

Trump Administration Backs Helms-Burton Plaintiffs in Two CVSGs

Last week, the Solicitor General filed briefs recommending that the Supreme Court grant review in two cases under the Helms-Burton Act. Passed in 1996, Helms-Burton allows U.S. nationals who own claims to property expropriated by Cuba to sue any person who traffics in such property, potentially for three times the value of the claim. Under…

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Using TLB to Teach International Business Transactions (2025 Update)

As the fall semester gets underway, we are updating our posts on using resources on TLB to teach various classes. This post discusses International Business Transactions (IBT). Although TLB focuses on litigation and IBT focuses on transactions, there is a great deal of overlap. The most obvious examples are contractual clauses that plan for dispute resolution,…

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CVSG in Chabad v. Russian Federation: Another Question of Foreign State Immunity

On June 2, 2025, the Supreme Court called for the views of the Solicitor General (“CVSG”) in Chabad v. Russian Federation. In Chabad’s petition for certiorari, the question presented is whether the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA)’s expropriation exception applies to a foreign state if the expropriated property—or property exchanged for it— is located outside…

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Supreme Court Narrows the FSIA’s Expropriation Exception (Again)

(Editor’s Note: This article also appears in Just Security.) Last Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Republic of Hungary v. Simon. Writing for a unanimous Court, Justice Sonia Sotomayor held that commingling the proceeds of expropriated property with other government funds, which are then used for commercial activity in the United States, is not enough…

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Eleventh Circuit Reverses Helms-Burton Judgments

On October 22, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit overturned judgments of more than $100 million each against four U.S.-based cruise lines under the 1996 Helms-Burton Act. The decision is another example of just how difficult it has been for plaintiffs to recover under the act since President Trump allowed suits…

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D.C. Circuit Remands Helms-Burton Case Against Cimex

Exxon (then Standard Oil) owned several subsidiaries in Cuba that were expropriated without compensation by the Cuban government in 1960. In 1996, Congress enacted the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act (CLDS), which permits suits by U.S. plaintiffs against those who traffic in property confiscated by the Cuban government. Exxon has sued Cuban state-owned companies…

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Using TLB to Teach International Business Transactions

As the fall semester gets underway, we are updating our posts on using resources on TLB to teach various classes. This post discusses International Business Transactions (IBT). Although TLB focuses on litigation and IBT focuses on transactions, there is a great deal of overlap. The most obvious examples are contractual clauses that plan for dispute resolution,…

Continue Reading

Supreme Court Grants Cert in Holocaust Expropriation Case

The Supreme Court granted cert this morning in Republic of Hungary v. Simon to consider further questions under the expropriation exception of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act. In Republic of Germany v. Philipp(2021), the Supreme  Court held that the expropriation exception does not apply to a government’s taking of the property of its own nationals….

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Throwback Thursday: Banco Nacional de Cuba v. Sabbatino

Sixty years ago, on March 23, 1964, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision in Banco Nacional de Cuba v. Sabbatino. By a vote of 8-1, the Court held that the act of state doctrine prevented U.S. courts from questioning the validity of Cuba’s expropriations of property owned by U.S. nationals, even if the…

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Russia Continues Pressing Sovereignty Claims in the Yukos Award Saga

Russian 200 ruble note

Yukos Oil Company (“Yukos”) shareholders’ attempts to enforce their $50 billion arbitral award against the Russian Federation are moving forward in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. On November 17, 2023, Judge Beryl Howell denied Russia’s motion to dismiss the case for lack of subject matter jurisdiction under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities…

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Ingrid (Wuerth) Brunk

Vanderbilt Law School
ingrid.brunk@vanderbilt.eduEmail

William Dodge

George Washington University Law School
william.dodge@law.gwu.eduEmail

Maggie Gardner

Cornell Law School
mgardner@cornell.eduEmail

John F. Coyle

University of North Carolina School of Law
jfcoyle@email.unc.eduEmail

Hannah Buxbaum

UC Davis School of Law
hbuxbaum@ucdavis.eduEmail

Mehrunnisa Chaudhry

George Washington University Law School
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Victoria Pino

Vanderbilt Law School
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Robert Kry

MoloLamken LLP
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Rinat Gareev

Whitecliff Management
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León Castellanos-Jankiewicz

Institute for International and European Law
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Paul B. Stephan

University of Virginia School of Law
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Robin Effron

Brooklyn Law School
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