Supreme Court hears case on whether federal courts have jurisdiction over Iraq

Foreign states cannot normally be sued in U.S. courts. The Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (”FSIA”), however, carves out several exceptions to this general rule, including one that permits lawsuits against state sponsors of terrorism “for personal injury or death that was caused by,” among other things, torture and hostage-taking. Today, the Supreme Court heard arguments in Republic of Iraq v. Beaty and Republic of Iraq v. Simon, two cases in which the Court must consider whether U.S. courts have jurisdiction over Iraq for claims involving hostage-taking and torture that occurred during Saddam Hussein’s regime. For a detailed description of the case and links to the briefs go here. Thanks to the TortsProf Blog for the citation.