Supreme Court Petitions to Watch: November 2026
Petitions for writs of certiorari have been filed in four cases previously covered by TLB. The cases involve personal and in rem jurisdiction, as well as the application of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) and the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA). Havlish v. Taliban (and related cases) (FSIA and TRIA) Judgment creditors in various…
Continue ReadingNew Scholarship on Personal Jurisdiction and the FSIA
A short forthcoming article by Robert Dorhman examines the use of the test from Bancec (First National City Bank v. Banco Para El Comercio Exerior de Cuba) to resolve various questions that arise under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA). Dohrman quite right to point out that the Bancec test, which was originally developed to…
Continue ReadingForeign States, Personal Jurisdiction, and the FSIA
A U.S. gas company has sued four Russian defendants in the Southern District of New York for seizing helium containers that the gas company had sent to Russia pursuant to a helium supply contract. One of the defendants, RusChemAlliance (RCA), moved to dismiss for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction. The case is unusual because the plaintiff…
Continue ReadingPersonal Jurisdiction in Tennis Antitrust Case
Many professional athletes compete at the international level, and some have accused the governing bodies of various sports of unlawfully restricting global competition for their services. When athletes bring antitrust claims in U.S. courts, however, it can be difficult to establish personal jurisdiction over foreign sports organizations. In a recent decision, Judge Margaret M. Garnett…
Continue ReadingSuing Cuban Instrumentalities Under the Helms-Burton Act
Under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA), the agencies and instrumentalities of foreign states are generally immune from suit in U.S. courts unless one of the FSIA’s exceptions applies. But this past June, in Exxon Mobil Corp v. Corporación CIMEX, S.A. (Cuba), the Supreme Court held that the Helms-Burton Act abrogates the sovereign immunity of Cuban agencies and…
Continue ReadingDue Process and in rem Jurisdiction
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recently held in United States v. Nasri that Fifth Amendment due process is violated if a federal court exercises in rem jurisdiction but lacks custody or constructive control over the property. The district court, Judge Hayes (S.D. Cal.), had held to the contrary, and Judge Bennett dissented from the panel…
Continue ReadingRecognizing Foreign Judgments: Of Personal Jurisdiction, Collateral Estoppel, and Judicial Discretion
In the United States, the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments is generally governed by state law. State law is largely uniform throughout the United States because most states have adopted one of two Uniform Acts. The acts raise fascinating questions of interpretation, and Judge Margaret M. Garnett (Southern District of New York) faced several…
Continue ReadingD.C. Circuit Holds Fuld Does Not Apply to District of Columbia
In July, the D.C. Circuit (Judge Justin Walker) held that the local courts of the District of Columbia are still constrained by the minimum contacts test for personal jurisdiction derived from International Shoe Co. v. Washington (1945) and not by the “more flexible” test permitted by the Fifth Amendment after Fuld v. Palestine Liberation Organization…
Continue ReadingD.C. Circuit on Personal Jurisdiction in Foreign-Cubed Cases
The D.C. Circuit (Judge Patricia Millet) recently grappled with the limits of federal personal jurisdiction in a suit between foreign parties regarding events that took place outside the United States. In Gligorov v. Nation of Brunei, the court affirmed the dismissal of RICO claims against three corporate defendants for lack of personal jurisdiction. The opinion…
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…
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