The New HEAR Act: Just in Time for the Cases That Inspired It?
When President Trump signed the Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery Act of 2025 on April 13, 2026, most commentary – including my own – generally discussed the Act as a forward-looking change that would help future claimants. Although I mentioned that the Act would apply to “current” plaintiffs, I did not explain which cases that might…
Continue ReadingD.C. Circuit Holds Jurisdictional Discovery in FSIA Cases Not Immediately Appealable
Last Friday, August 14, 2026, the D.C. Circuit held in Rodriguez v. Pan American Health Organization that international organizations, and by extension foreign states, cannot immediately appeal district court orders for jurisdictional discovery aimed at determining if they are immune from suit. (Disclosure: I joined an amicus brief urging the court to take this position.)…
Continue ReadingForum Connections in Arbitration Enforcement
The New York Convention requires signatory states to recognize and enforce foreign arbitral awards, subject only to narrow exceptions set forth in the treaty. The Convention’s fundamental purpose is to facilitate enforcement by making arbitral awards portable, allowing award holders to search the globe for assets (or information about assets) when a counterparty that promised…
Continue ReadingThe Post-Award Battlefield: What Stabil Means for Wartime Investment Awards
The next phase of Ukraine-related investment law will not unfold primarily before arbitral tribunals. It will unfold in domestic courts asked to convert wartime arbitral awards into recoverable money. The D.C. Circuit’s decision in Stabil LLC v. Russian Federation, affirming jurisdiction to enforce Crimea-related awards against Russia, shows both how far award creditors have come…
Continue ReadingStrange Statutory Interpretation in Foreign Relations Law: The October 2025 Term
The back end of the Supreme Court’s October Term 2025 brought us three decisions in statutory cases dealing with foreign relations law. Havana Docks Corp. v. Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd. explored the scope of the Helms Burton Act, a sanctions statute targeting Cuba. Exxon Mobil Corp. v. Corporación Cimex, S.A. (Cuba) held that this statute…
Continue ReadingSupreme Court Says Helms-Burton Abrogates Foreign Sovereign Immunity
In Exxon Mobil Corp v. Corporación CIMEX, S.A. (Cuba), the Supreme Court held that the Helms-Burton Act abrogated the sovereign immunity of Cuban agencies and instrumentalities for suits brought under the Act. Plaintiffs may therefore pursue such suits whether or not they can satisfy one of the exceptions to immunity in the Foreign Sovereign Immunities…
Continue ReadingThe FSIA and Agreements to Aribtrate
The enforcement of foreign arbitral awards has led to contested questions about personal jurisdiction, about the scope ofthe arbitration exception to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA), and about the relationship between that exception and the New York Convention. A new case from the D.C. Circuit, Global Voice v. Republic of Guinea considers the scope…
Continue ReadingSovereign Immunity and Choice-of-Law Clauses
On its face, a choice-of-law clause selecting the laws of the United States (or a state within the United States) may seem irrelevant to whether a foreign nation has waived its sovereign immunity in U.S. courts. Over the years, however, a number of U.S. courts have held that a choice-of-law clause may, in fact, function as an implied…
Continue ReadingThe 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 ReadingNational Security Concerns as a “Burden” in Discovery Disputes
How should U.S. national security concerns be weighed in discovery disputes in cases that do not directly involve the U.S. government? That question is under consideration in Pao Taftneft v. Ukraine, a case currently before the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, in which Russian investors seek to enforce a foreign arbitral award…
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