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United States: Amendments to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act Concerning Jurisdiction for Lawsuits Against Terrorist States, Including Technical Correction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 February 2017

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Extract

Prior to the amendment, the non–commercial tort exception to sovereign immunity, 28 U.S.C. §1605(a)(5), barred tort claims against foreign states where the tort and the resulting injury did not occur in the United States. New §1605(a)(7) denies immunity to states in suits involving torture, extrajudicial killing, hostage taking, and aircraft sabotage, committed outside the U.S. by an official, employee or agent of the offending state while acting within the scope of his employment or agency. The respondent state must have been designated by the Executive as a state sponsor of terrorism. To fall within this new jurisdictional grant, the claim must meet several preconditions, each of which has dispositive jurisdictional significance.

Type
Legislation and Regulations
Information
International Legal Materials , Volume 36 , Issue 3 , May 1997 , pp. 759 - 760
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of International Law 1997

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References

* Reproduced from the U.S. Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, Public Law 104–132, Section 221, April 24,1996. The legislative history on Section 221 appears in a paragraph in House Conference Report No. 104–518 at page 945. The technical correction, which appears at the end of the Amendment, is reproduced from Public Law 105–11, April 25,1997.

[The Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 1997, contained in Public Law 104-208, Section ' 589, September 20,1996, creates civil liability in U.S. courts for acts of state sponsored terrorism. If an official or agent of a foreign state commits terrorist acts as defined in the U.S. Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, Section 221, that result in the personal injury or death of a U.S. national, and the official acted in the scope of his office in committing those acts, that official shall be liable to the U.S. national or his legal representative for money damages.

[The U.S. Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976, Public Law 94-583, October 21,1976, appears at 15 I.L.M. 1388 (1976); and the 1988 Amendments to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, Public Law 100-640, November 8,1988, and Public Law 100-669, November 16, 1988, with an Introductory Note by Bruno A. Ristau, appear at 28 I.L.M. 396 (1989).

[The UN International Convention against the Taking of Hostages, adopted by the UN General Assembly December 17,1979, appears at 18 I.L.M. 1456 (1979), and the International Civil Aviation Organization Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts Against the Safety of Civil Aviation, September 23,1971, appears at 10 I.L.M. 1151 (1971).]