Abstract
As Prof. B.S. Chimni has shown, while the international law of state jurisdiction masquerades as a technical procedural rule, it has long served the capitalist and imperialist interests of Western States—a revelation that aligns with Third World Approaches to International Law (‘TWAIL’). It is no surprise then that the international law on foreign sovereign immunity—which is a subset of the law of state jurisdiction—has also furthered the capitalist interests of Western countries. This tendency is reflected in the United States’ Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, 1976 (‘FSIA’), which is one of the most important domestic foreign sovereign immunity regimes. Under the FSIA, foreign sovereigns are immune from the jurisdiction of U.S. courts unless an exception to immunity applies. Judicial approaches to the FSIA’s most central immunity exception—which relates to the commercial activity of foreign sovereigns—starkly demonstrate how U.S. capitalist interests are bolstered by this statutory regime. While few academics have explored this and other ways in which the FSIA furthers the capitalist, imperialist interests of the United States, the issue deserves more attention from TWAIL scholars given the FSIA’s global influence.
Recommended Citation
Jamshidi, Maryam
(2024)
"Foreign Sovereign Immunity Doctrine: A TWAIL Perspective,"
National Law School of India Review: Vol. 35:
Iss.
2, Article 8.
DOI: 10.55496/AOMC3166
Available at:
https://repository.nls.ac.in/nlsir/vol35/iss2/8
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
10.55496/AOMC3166
