Germany v. Philipp (U.S. Sup. Ct.)

Abstract

In 1976, the U.S. Congress enacted the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) to afford foreign sovereigns presumptive immunity from the jurisdictional reach of U.S. courts absent the application of one of the exceptions specifically enumerated in the statute. In Federal Republic of Germany v. Philipp, the U.S. Supreme Court considered whether a foreign sovereign's “taking of property from its own nationals” falls within FSIA's so-called expropriation exception for “property taken in violation of international law.”