Юрисдикційний імунітет іноземних держав у праві США

Andrii ANDREYKIV

doi:10.31617/3.2026(143)08

Authors

Andrii ANDREYKIV Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago-Kent College of Law https://orcid.org/0009-0007-0595-7062

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31617/3.2026(143)08

Keywords:

Sovereign immunity, jurisdictional immunity of a foreign state, U.S. Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA), right of private claime, private litigation, exceptions to sovereign immunity.

Abstract

A distinctive feature of claims against a foreign state or its agents is overcoming the reservations of sovereign (jurisdictional) immunity. In domestic doctrine, the issue of a state jurisdictional immunity has traditionally been developed predominantly within the framework of absolute immunity, historically rooted in the Soviet school of international law; however, this approach is currently undergoing gradual transformation. The study was carried out based on an examination of U.S. case law, particularly litigation concerning compensation for the victims of mass international crimes, with a primary focus on Holocaust-related cases and litigation involving state-sponsored terrorism by Iran. The full-scale aggression against Ukraine has catalysed both doctrinal and practical shifts toward a functionally restrictive approach to immunity, particularly in disputes concerning compensation for damage to the life, health, and property of individuals. The judicial prospects for compensation for damage caused by the armed aggression against Ukraine have been analysed through the lens of the judicial practice of the general legal system. Particular attention is focused on the possibility of appealing to the courts of foreign jurisdiction by both private individuals – citizens of Ukraine – and by persons of Ukrainian origin residing abroad who, personally or through their family members, have suffered property or non-property damage as a result of the aggression.

Author Biography

Andrii ANDREYKIV, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago-Kent College of Law

Master of Laws (LL.M.) in Financial Law and International Trade, PhD (Law)

References

Bank Markazi and the Undervaluation of Legislative Generality. (n.d.). Yale Journal of Law & Policy: Inter Alia. Accessed May 20, 2026, from https://yalelawandpolicy.org/inter_alia/bank-markazi-and-undervaluation-legislative-generality

Bank Markazi v. Peterson. (2016). Harv. L. Rev., (130), 328, 334-36.

Caplan, L. M. (2003). State Immunity, Human Rights, and Jus Cogens: A Critique of the Normative Hierarchy Theory. The American Journal of International Law, 97(4), 741-781. https://doi.org/10.2307/3133679 DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/3133679

Duveen v. United States Distric Court (In re Austrian & German Holocaust Litig.), 250 F.3d 156 (2d Cir. 2001).

Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, 28 U.S.C. (1976). §§ 1602-1611.

Iran Threat Reduction and Syria Human Rights Act 22 U.S.C. § 8772 (2012).

Joint Statement on the Foundation "Remembrance, Responsibility and the Future" (2000). Cited in Zeisl v. Wotman (In re Austrian & German Bank Holocaust Litigation), 317 F.3d (2d Cir. 2003).

Korynevych, A. (2024). The Ukrainian struggle for internationalization of the problem of punishment of the crime of aggression. In The Russian-Ukrainian Conflict and War Crimes: Challenges for Documentation and International Prosecution Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003493785-20 DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003493785-20

Lauterpacht, H. (1958). The Development of International Law by the International Court. Cambridge University Press.

National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year (2008). Pub. L.No. 110-181, § 1083, 122 Stat.

Spilotis, S-S. (2006). Corporate responsibility and historical injustice. In Civil Society: Berlin Perspectives. Berghahn Books, 51-69. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780857456984-004 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9780857456984-004

Terrorism Exception, 28 U.S.C. § 1605A. Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) (2002).

The Law on the Creation of a Foundation "Remembrance, Responsibility and Future" (2000, 2008). Federal Law Gazette I 1263, last amended by the Law of 1 September 2008, which came into force on 9 September 2008. Federal Law Gazette I 1797. https://reparations.qub.ac.uk/assets/uploads/RRF-law.pdf?utm_source=chatgpt.com

United Nations Convention on Jurisdictional Immunities of States and Their Property. (2004). United Nations Treaty Collection. https://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx-?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=III-13&chapter=3&clang=_en#EndDec

Zadorozhnii, O. V. (2016). To Justify Against All Odds: The Annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the russian Legal Scholarship. Polish Yearbook of International Law, (35), 139-169. https://journals.pan.pl/Content/106632/PDF/05_Zadorozhnii.pdf?handler=pdf

Andreykiv, A. (2025) International legal regulation of compensation for damage for crimes of aggression in martial law and the post-war period. Scientific works of the Kyiv Aviation Institute. Series: Legal Bulletin "Air and Space Law", 3(76), 31-37. https://doi.org/10.18372/2307-9061.76.20516 DOI: https://doi.org/10.18372/2307-9061.76.20516

Bortnik, O. G., & Stepanenko, T. V. (2023). Peculiarities of considering court cases related to the limitation of the jurisdictional immunity of a foreign state. Analytical and comparative jurisprudence, (4), 130-136. https://doi.org/10.24144/2788-6018.2023.04.20 DOI: https://doi.org/10.24144/2788-6018.2023.04.20

Vodiannikov, O. (2022). Aggressive immunities and the immune aggressor: between the legislator and the judge. LB.ua: Adult view of the world. https://lb.ua/blog/oleksandr_vodennikov/527485_agresivni_imuniteti_i_imunniy.html

Kaminska, N., & Gdychynskyi, V. (2025). The modern paradigm of aggression as a basis for the modernization of international law-making. Foreign trade: economics, finance, law. Series. Legal sciences, 3(140), 4-13. https://doi.org/10.31617/3.2025(140)01 DOI: https://doi.org/10.31617/3.2025(140)01

Kasianovskyi, I. (2025). Immunities of state property and their limitations in international law. [Doctoral dissertation, V. M. Koretsky Institute of State and Law. National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine].

Koretskyi, V. M. (1957). General principles of law in international law. Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR.