Foreign Sovereign Immunity Law in the United States

Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976

Entities and Persons Entitled to Immunity

According to research about Foreign Sovereign Immunity Law from the Federal Judicial Center:In virtually every litigation under the FSIA, the first issue is whether the entity claiming protection of the statute qualifies as a “foreign state.” In this regard, the statute makes several important definitional distinctions. Under 28 U.S.C. § 1603(a), the term “foreign state” includes (1) a political subdivision of a foreign state and (2) an agency or instrumentality of a foreign state. This fundamental distinction is reflected throughout the FSIA and has concrete legal consequences, since the statute provides for differing treatment of the two categories in various ways, including with respect to service of process, venue, punitive damages, execution, and attachment. In practice, however, the distinction to be made is almost always between a foreign state proper (including its integral governmental components and political subdivisions) and its separate agencies and instrumentalities.

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