The 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…
Continue ReadingSeventh Circuit Limits Email Service on Foreign Defendants
Last Friday, the Seventh Circuit held in Kangol LLC v. Hangzhou Chuanyue Silk Import & Export Co., Ltd. that defendants located in China cannot be served by email when the Hague Service Convention applies. (Disclaimer: Bill Dodge and I filed an amicus in Kangol with the help of friend-of-the-blog Ted Folkman urging this result.) The…
Continue ReadingJurisdictional Puzzles about the Enforcement of Judgments & Arbitral Awards
Two recent cases highlight unsettled questions about jurisdictional limitations on the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgements and arbitral awards. The first, Alterna Aircraft V B Ltd. v. SpiceJet Ltd., addressed whether due process requires the presence of property in the forum state if the court otherwise lacks personal jurisdiction over the debtor. In Alterna,…
Continue ReadingHavlish v. Taliban: Second Circuit Denies Rehearing En Banc
As of Spring 2026, Afghan central bank assets blocked by the U.S. government remain unavailable to satisfy terrorism-related judgments. In March, a divided Second Circuit denied rehearing en banc to victims of terrorist attacks who hold judgments against the Taliban and who seek to enforce those judgments against $3.5 billion in “blocked” assets held in…
Continue ReadingWashington Supreme Court Requires In-State Property for Recognition of Foreign Judgments
To recognize and enforce a judgment rendered in another jurisdiction, a U.S. court need not have in personam jurisdiction over the judgment debtor. The U.S. Supreme Court observed in Shaffer v. Heitner (1977): Once it has been determined by a court of competent jurisdiction that the defendant is a debtor of the plaintiff, there would…
Continue ReadingThe Good and the Bad of King v. Bon Charge
The Supreme Court’s latest personal jurisdiction decision, Fuld v. Palestine Liberation Organization (2025), left the lower courts to work out what exactly the Fifth Amendment due process analysis entails. The emerging consensus is that those questions can be avoided as long as the facts of a case meet the preexisting test for personal jurisdiction under…
Continue ReadingSupreme Court Coverage
The Court will hear oral argument today in Cisco Systems v. Doe I et al. to decide whether a U.S. corporation can be held liable under the Alien Tort Statue or the Torture Victim Protection Act for aiding and abetting violations of international human rights law. The argument, which is the only one scheduled today, starts…
Continue ReadingSupreme Court decides Enbridge and Fluor
Last Tuesday, the Supreme Court decided two cases that TLB has been following: Enbridge Energy, LP v. Nessel and Hencely v. Fluor Corp. Enbridge Enbridge is a dispute about whether Michigan can effectively shut down a pipeline under the Straits of Mackinac, but the particular question before the Court was purely procedural: does equitable tolling…
Continue ReadingWaco Judge Enjoins Litigation of U.S. Patents in Germany
Judge Alan D Albright (Western District of Texas) loves patent cases. Before his appointment as a district judge in 2018, he was a patent litigator. After his appointment, he “went on a media blitz, letting everyone know that his court would welcome patent litigation.” As detailed here, Judge Albright adopted standing orders that promised speedy…
Continue Reading$16 billion judgment against Argentina reversed: breach of contract or expropriation?
Private investors in an Argentinian oil company (YPF) sued in the Southern District of New York when Argentina nationalized part of the ownership in YPF. Years of ensuing litigation under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) focused on whether the litigation was based on an expropriation (as the defendants argued) or a “commercial activity” (as…
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