Throwback Thursday: The Tate Letter and Foreign Sovereign Immunity
Seventy years ago this week, Department of State Legal Adviser Jack Tate wrote to Attorney General Philip Perlman to announce a sea change in State’s litigation practice vis-à-vis foreign sovereign immunity. The so-called “Tate Letter” informed the Department of Justice that State would shift from the “classical” approach to sovereign immunity to what’s known as…
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 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: Joseph Story and the Comity of Nations
One of the most influential books on transnational litigation was written nearly two centuries ago by a sitting Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Joseph Story’s Commentaries on the Conflict of Laws, first published in 1834, synthesized foreign and domestic cases regarding conflict of laws and the enforcement of foreign judgments. Story endorsed international comity…
Continue ReadingForeign Sovereign Immunity and Choice of Law—State, not Federal
In Cassirer v. Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Foundation, the Supreme Court unanimously held that, in adjudicating state-law claims against a foreign state or instrumentality under one of the exceptions to the Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act (FSIA), 28 U.S.C. § 1602, et seq., a federal court must apply the choice-of-law rules of the forum state rather than federal…
Continue ReadingSecond Circuit Holds that Forum Non Conveniens Applies Under the FSIA
In Aenergy, S.A. v. Republic of Angola, the Second Circuit held that the standard doctrine of forum non conveniens applies to suits against foreign states under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA). This holding is consistent with what the D.C. Circuit has said about forum non conveniens in FSIA cases. The Second Circuit’s decision would likely…
Continue ReadingWhat Should Happen Next in Cassirer?
Most of the procedural questions that arise in domestic litigation have a counterpart in transnational litigation. In Cassirer v. Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Foundation, the Supreme Court confronted the transnational counterpart to Klaxon v. Stentor Electric Manufacturing Co., a much-debated choice-of-law case decided in 1941. As Justice Kagan noted in her opinion for a unanimous Court, “[a]lthough…
Continue ReadingCassirer and FSIA Choice of Law
Today the Supreme Court unanimously resolved an important case about choice of law under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA). Cassirer v. Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Foundation is a lawsuit about the ownership of a Camille Pissarro painting, surrendered by Lilly Cassirer to the Nazis and now held by a foundation created and controlled by the Government…
Continue ReadingSupreme Court decides Cassirer v. Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Foundation
The Supreme Court today unanimously held in Cassirer v. Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Foundation that state choice-of-law rules apply in cases brought against foreign sovereigns alleging non-federal claims.
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