Abstract
In RJR Nabisco v. European Community, the Court added an exclamation point to a long term trend in its jurisprudence. It believes, this trend indicates, that private civil suits pose specific foreign relations issues, at least when the targets are foreign transactions and actors, to which the Court will respond by erecting barriers. To this general point the case adds an unsurprising, but still important codicil: These problems don’t go away when foreign states take advantage of the U.S. civil litigation system by acting as plaintiffs.
Highlights
European Community, the Court added an exclamation point to a long term trend in its jurisprudence.[1]. This trend indicates, that private civil suits pose specific foreign relations issues, at least when the targets are foreign transactions and actors, to which the Court will respond by erecting barriers
Arabian American Oil Co., a 1991 decision dealing with a regulatory framework—employment discrimination—that relied mostly on private litigation.[3]
Chief Justice Rehnquist, writing for the majority, argued that Congress could not be understood as wanting to set the terms of labor markets outsides the United States
Summary
Arabian American Oil Co., a 1991 decision dealing with a regulatory framework—employment discrimination—that relied mostly on private litigation.[3] Chief Justice Rehnquist, writing for the majority, argued that Congress could not be understood as wanting to set the terms of labor markets outsides the United States. Empagran interpreted the legislative mare’s nest that is the 1982 Foreign Trade Antitrust Improvements Act as limiting civil suits for antitrust injuries to harm that occurs in the United States.[5] The Court did not invoke the presumption against extraterritoriality as such, but the RJR majority found its analysis helpful in explaining why RICO’s private right of action should apply only to domestic injury.
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