Amending the Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act to Promote Accountability for Violations of Peremptory Norms of International Law

Authors

Joshua Newman

First Page

585

Abstract

The current state of the United States legal system, and international law at large, fails to afford victims of violations of international law with proper redress, when those violations were facilitated by a domestic taking. The Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act provides foreign sovereigns immunity from the jurisdiction of United States courts when those foreign sovereigns effectuate of a violation of international law through domestic takings. Courts have attempted to circumvent the restrictions of the Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act with exceptions such as the genocide exception. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Federal Republic of Germany v Philipp renounced the genocide exception, leaving victims of domestic takings powerless against their sovereigns.This Note proposes an amendment to the Foreign Sovereign Immunity Amendment that would provide an exception to the immunity enjoyed by foreign sovereigns when those foreign sovereigns’ violations of the peremptory norms of international law are facilitated by domestic takings. Such an amendment would provide otherwise helpless victims of domestic takings with an avenue for redress in United States courts when the taking facilitates a violation of a peremptory norm of international law.

Recommended Citation

Joshua Newman, Amending the Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act to Promote Accountability for Violations of Peremptory Norms of International Law, 49 Brook. J. Int'l L. 585 (2024).
Available at: https://brooklynworks.brooklaw.edu/bjil/vol49/iss2/7