Kingdom of Spain v. Estate of Claude Cassirer - "invitation brief" (CVSG brief)
Country
Year
2011
Summary
The Office of the Solicitor General (the SG), U.S. Department of Justice, filed an "invitation brief" with the U.S. Supreme Court in Kingdom of Spain v. Estate of Claude Cassirer, recommending denial of certiorari in the case (which involves a claim by Cassirer's estate against Spain and one of its instrumentalities for recovery of a painting confiscated by Nazi Germany and subsequently acquired by the Spanish state instrumentality). The SG concluded, significantly, that a State owning expropriated property (and otherwise satisfying the commercial activities requirements of the FSIA) has waived immunity and is subject to U.S. court jurisdiction even if that State was not the expropriating State. Thus, the Spanish state instrumentality could have lost its immunity to U.S. court jurisdiction despite the fact that Nazi Germany was the expropriator. Importantly, the SG also concluded that that no exhaustion of local remedies (whether in Spain or in Germany) is required under either the FSIA or international law for an unlawful expropriation. In view of the claim by opponents of investment arbitration that that lack of an exhaustion requirement in investment treaties means foreign investors are treated more favorably under those treaties than under U.S. domestic law, the latter conclusion is a quite significant statement of the position of the United States about exhaustion of local remedies in expropriation cases.
A "call for the views of the Solicitor General" (CVSG) is a request by at least 4 Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court for the views of the United States, represented by the Solicitor General, in a case in which the U.S. is not a party. Justice Ginsburg has described the nature of an invitation (CVSG) brief from the SG in the following terms.
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