Introduction

• Author: Ernesto Sanchez
• Pages: 97-97

97

THE F SIA A ND SU BJ ECT M AT TE R

JURI SDIC TI ON

INTRODUCTION

e FSIA provides for subject matter jurisdiction, personal jurisdiction, and jurisdiction for

enforcement actions with respect to specied claims against entities that meet its denition

of a “foreign state.” is section concerns the statute’s most extensive set of provisions—those

governing when a court can and cannot exercise subject matter jurisdiction.

Chapter 8 gives an overview of the FSIA’s framework for exercising subject matter jurisdic-

tion—that entities qualifying as “foreign states” under the statute are immune from U.S. courts’

subject matter jurisdiction unless a treaty predating the statute to which the United States is a

party or subsequently enumerated exception provides otherwise. e next 11 chapters examine

the FSIA’s exceptions to foreign sovereign immunity, which encompass:

• waivers of foreign sovereign immunity (Chapter 9);

• commercial activities (Chapter 10);

• expropriations of property (Chapter 11);

• other disputes over property rights (Chapter 12);

• noncommercial torts (Chapter 13);

• enforcement of arbitration agreements and conrmation of arbitral awards (Chapter 14);

• enforcement of maritime liens against vessels or cargo (Chapter 15);

• foreclosures on preferred mortgages on vessels (Chapter 16);

• state-sponsored terrorism (Chapter 17); and

• counterclaims (Chapter 18).

In addition, as Chapter 19 explains, U.S. law statutorily precludes the FSIA from applying to

certain bankruptcy actions. Readers should keep in mind that many of the concepts this section

discusses (e.g., commercial activities) also apply with respect to the enforcement measures the

statute allows, which are discussed in Chapter 30.

PART III

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