Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA)

× Clear Filters
46 Articles
A smartphone with the website of Israel's NSO Group which features 'Pegasus' spyware reads, “NSO Group Developing Technology to Prevent and Investigate Terror and Crime.” The phone lies next to a small figurine of a person and their shadow.

NSO Group Loses Immunity Claim at the Ninth Circuit

In 2019, the messaging platform WhatsApp sued NSO Group, alleging that the Israeli company sent spyware through WhatsApp’s servers to approximately 1,400 mobile devises in violation…
Egypt's interim prime minister Hazem Beblawi gives an interview to a journalist from the Agence France-Presse at his office in Cairo on November 24, 2013 as Egypt's interim president approved a controversial law regulating demonstrations. The Egyptian flag stands behind his chair.

Parsing an Immunity Decision at the Heart of U.S.-Egypt Relations  

A suit between a US citizen and the former PM of Egypt raises sticky questions of diplomatic immunity - and tees up a potential constitutional clash between the executive and judiciary.…

The Meaning of the Supreme Court’s Ruling in Germany v. Philipp

Last week the U.S. Supreme Court decided Germany v. Philipp, a Holocaust expropriation case brought under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA). Writing for a unanimous Court,…
Thurgood Marshall Courthouse

Suing Foreign States in U.S. Courts

Since the enactment of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) in 1976, foreign sovereigns have become subject to a number of statutory exceptions to immunity in U.S. courts.…
World map with golden threads indictaing global connectivity.

Trail Smelter Arbitration Offers Little Guidance for COVID-19 Suits against China

On June 23, the Senate Committee on the Judiciary held an extraordinary hearing on whether to amend the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) in order to permit domestic lawsuits…
The wreckage of the U.S. embassy in Dar es Salaam embassy in 1998.

The Significance of the Supreme Court’s Opati Decision for States and Companies Sued for Terrorism in U.S. Courts

On Monday, the Supreme Court issued its decision in Opati v. Republic of Sudan opening the door to victims of the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam to pursue…
Residents obtain water from a natural source from the hill El Avila after the water supply was suspended following a nationwide blackout occurred March 10, 2019 in Caracas, Venezuela.

How to Hold Venezuela’s Maduro Accountable for Human Rights Abuses

The Trump administration's focus on the regime’s corruption, manipulation of the election process, and narco-terrorism omits other egregious violations.
People without face masks protest the stay at home orders designed to slow the spread of the coronavirus and keep people healthy. They hold signs encouraging people to demand that businesses be allowed to open up, and people allowed to go back to work, at the Country Club Plaza on April 20, 2020 in Kansas City, Missouri. They also wave American flags and stand very close together ignoring social distancing standards.

Missouri’s Lawsuit Doesn’t Abrogate China’s Sovereign Immunity

U.S. courts do not have jurisdiction over private class action lawsuits brought against Chinese government defendants for their alleged misconduct in allowing the coronavirus to…

WhatsApp v. NSO Group: State Immunity and Cyber Spying

WhatsApp claims NSO implanted spyware on phones of human rights activists, lawyers, and religious figures. NSO says it can't be sued if it did so on behalf of (undisclosed) foreign…
Gavel and stethoscope

Don’t Bother Suing China for Coronavirus

"Simply put, any scholar or practitioner with working knowledge of the law of foreign sovereign immunity would have taken one look at the headlines about these lawsuits (as I did)…
Sri Lankan Defence Ministry Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa rides in a jeep during a Victory Day parade rehearsal in Colombo on May 17, 2013. Military personnel in uniform surround him.

Suit Against Sri Lankan Presidential Candidate Rajapaksa Dismissed on Common Law Immunity Grounds

Among other deficiencies, the ruling failed to acknowledge jurisprudence from other courts indicating that jus cogens violations can never constitute “official” acts entitling…
People walk by The Piaget Building at 650 5th Avenue, which has been named as being owned by the Iranian government, on November 13, 2009 in New York City.

Second Circuit Gets Civil Forfeiture under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act Wrong

Are foreign states and their property immune from civil forfeiture suits brought by the U.S.? In a case involving a Manhattan skyscraper controlled by Iran, the Second Circuit…
1-12 of 46 items

DON'T MISS A THING. Stay up to date with Just Security curated newsletters: