We will come to the issue of sovereign immunity in a few weeks. But this last Friday Congress passed a piece of legislation that would allow families of the victims of the 9/11 attacks to sue the government of Saudi Arabia in U.S. Courts. A Washington Post account of the legislation is here. This in effect eliminates the sovereign immunity of states in U.S. courts if certain conditions are met. The legislation has been opposed by the White House, many policy makers and most international law scholars, as the legislation will place the U.S. offside the international law principles on sovereign immunity, and will likely result in other countries doing likewise to allow law suits against the U.S. government. An example of the arguments against it can be found in Just Security post this weekend here.
What do you think? We will revisit the issue once we have examined the doctrine of sovereign immunity, and we can discuss then whether your views have changed.
Terrible idea but then maybe Congress will understand the importance of adhering to international law more clearly.
ReplyDeleteI found this article interesting: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/09/911-legislation-congress-obama-veto-override/502337/
ReplyDeleteIt ends with "Can Congress fix a law when the ink has barely dried? Maybe, but both sides are skeptical that any changes are coming soon. The more likely scenario is that lawmakers will wait to see what repercussions transpire and then try to react."
Maureen