The Supreme Court recently confirmed in a unanimous decision the requirements for personal jurisdiction over foreign states when parties seek to confirm international arbitration awards, but important questions remain. In...more
In a unanimous decision on June 5, 2025, the Supreme Court of the United States overturned a Ninth Circuit decision declining to enforce a US$ 1.3 billion arbitral award issued to Devas Multimedia Private Ltd. ("Devas"), an...more
On June 5, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously reversed a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision requiring a plaintiff seeking to confirm an arbitration award against a foreign state to prove minimum contacts with the...more
On June 5, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court held in a unanimous decision in CC/Devas (Mauritius) Ltd. v. Antrix Corp. Ltd. that the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) does not require plaintiffs to show that a foreign state...more
To resolve longstanding confusion over the scope of foreign countries' sovereign immunity in U.S. courts, Congress in 1976 passed the Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act ("FSIA"). The FSIA draws a bright line: "foreign states and...more
On June 5, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court in CC/Devas (Mauritius) Ltd., et al. v. Antrix Corp., et al., No. 23-1201 held that personal jurisdiction exists over a foreign entity under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA)...more
On June 5, 2025, in a unanimous decision authored by Justice Alito, the United States Supreme Court held that the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976 (FSIA), 28 U.S.C. §§1330, 1602 et seq., does not require a plaintiff...more
On June 5, 2025, the Supreme Court issued its unanimous opinion in CC/Devas (Mauritius) Ltd. et al. v. Antrix Corp. Ltd. et al. (605 U.S. ___ (2025)), holding that personal jurisdiction exists over an enforcement action...more
As this term draws to a close, the U.S. Supreme Court is getting busy in reducing its inventory of pending cases. Yesterday, six of them were resolved....more
The Supreme Court of the United States issued six decisions today: Ames v. Ohio Dept. of Youth Services, No. 23-1039: This case addresses whether majority-group plaintiffs are held to a heighted evidentiary standard in...more
I am proud to announce the publication in the Chapman Law Review of my article: “Turnabout is Foul Play: Sovereign Immunity and Cultural Property Claims”. As the article explains, the Roberts Court has contorted beyond...more
The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed a district court’s denial of foreign sovereign immunity to a Chinese company accused of stealing trade secrets related to the production of proprietary metallurgy...more
In Samantar v. Yousuf, the US Supreme Court held that foreign officials, when sued in their individual capacity, are subject to immunity under a similar, but different set of rules that govern lawsuits against foreign states....more
Last week, the Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision in Republic of Hungary v. Simon, a case concerning the scope of immunity under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act’s (FSIA) expropriation exception....more
On February 21, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Republic of Hungary v. Simon, holding that the commercial nexus requirement of the expropriation exception to the Federal Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976 (FISA) — which is...more
On December 3, 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument in Hungary v. Simon. As discussed in a previous client alert, the case concerns whether the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit correctly allowed...more
On December 3, 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court heard argument in Republic of Hungary v. Simon. The case involves Hungary’s theft of valuable items from Jewish families during the Holocaust. The plaintiffs sued the Republic of...more
On October 22, 2024, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the Southern District of New York’s decision denying the motion of Turkiye Halk Bankasi A.S. (“Halkbank”), a commercial bank that is majority owned by the...more
On October 22, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit determined that common-law foreign sovereign immunity does not protect Halkbank, a commercial bank, majority-owned by Turkey, from criminal prosecution for...more
On October 22, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled that Türkiye Halk Bankası A.Ş. (“Halkbank”), owned by the Republic of Turkey, can be prosecuted for allegedly helping Iran evade U.S. sanctions and...more
On Oct. 4, the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari in CC/Devas Ltd. v. Antrix Corp. Ltd. to decide whether either the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act or the U.S. Constitution requires plaintiffs to establish personal...more
In its recent decision in Agudas Chasidei Chabad of United States v. Russian Federation, the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit clarified the rules surrounding the “expropriation exception” to sovereign immunity under the...more
Since 2010, Simon v. Republic of Hungary has ascended and descended the judicial ladder as federal courts have considered how to interpret and apply the “expropriation exception” of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act...more
On July 16, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit dismissed the case Wye Oak Technology, Inc. v. Republic of Iraq and Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Iraq, for lack of subject matter jurisdiction because...more
The doctrine of sovereign immunity is a foundational element of the interplay between a governmental investor’s contractual obligation to satisfy capital calls and a fund’s or lender’s ability to enforce that obligation...more