Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act

Huawei’s leadership respond to Trump ban.

Big in the news of late:  Huawei and the Trump Administration’s ban.

Continue Reading Chinese Companies and the FSIA

USS Cole, the ship at the heart of the suit. U.S. Navy photo.

Last fall, I posted “FSIA Service… it’s really not that difficult” following several very poorly titled articles describing the Trump Administration’s support of a foreign government’s argument in a sovereign immunity case.  Sudan had asserted that service on its Embassy in Washington was not appropriate under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, and the Department of Justice weighed in on Sudan’s side.  The outrage from both left and right irked the hell out of me.  But the knee-jerk, non-lawyer reaction from the left– my own people, for crying out loud– really set my teeth on edge.  Yesterday, logic won.Continue Reading SCOTUS solidifies FSIA service logic

USS Cole, DDG 67.  [U.S. Navy photo.]
[Author’s caveat:  it’s really not that difficult unless you’re suing Iran or North Korea.]

Anybody who knows me well… knows my political leanings.  They’re no secret, but they’re usually immaterial to this blog so I leave them out of commentary almost entirely.  Full disclosure–

Thomas Hobbes, the guy who foisted the sovereignty concept on generations of political philosophy nerds. John Michael Wright - National Portrait Gallery (thus Public Domain) - via Wikimedia Commons.
Thomas Hobbes, the 17th century English guy who foisted the sovereignty concept on generations of political philosophy nerds.  Let’s all blame him for this, shall we?   John Michael Wright – National Portrait Gallery (thus Public Domain) – via Wikimedia Commons.

Your defendant is a foreign government.  Or a foreign government