Journal Article

Foreign Dictators in U.S. Court

Zambrano, Diego A.

2022

Overview

It's almost impossible to sue a foreign government in U.S. courts. The Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, the court-created \"act of state\" doctrine, and other common-law immunities shield foreign officials and governments from most lawsuits. For instance, courts have dismissed claims against China, Cuba, Venezuela, and Russia over allegations of torture, detentions, and election interference. Yet foreign governments have unfettered access to U.S. courts as plaintiffs. And foreign dictatorships—including Russia, China, Turkey, and Venezuela—have leveraged this access to harass political dissidents, critics, and even newspapers in the United States. These doctrines create an asymmetry at the heart of this Article: foreign dictators and their proxies can access our courts as plaintiffs to harass their opponents, but their regimes are, in turn, immune from lawsuits here. This Article exposes that asymmetry and argues that U.S. courts and Congress should make it harder for foreign dictators to abuse our legal system. This Article offers three novel contributions. First, this Article provides the first systematic assessment of foreign dictatorships in U.S. courts. While much of the literature is siloed by area of substantive law—focusing on contexts like human rights or property expropriations—this Article treats dictators as a transsubstantive category of litigants, worthy of special analysis. Second, this Article exposes how foreign dictators are increasingly taking advantage of U.S. courts and comity doctrines, especially as plaintiffs. In a misguided effort to promote harmonious foreign relations, courts have provided foreign dictators an array of protections and privileges, which dictators are eagerly exploiting. Finally, this Article demonstrates that there is no historical, constitutional, or statutory obligation on U.S. courts to give foreign dictators these legal protections and unfettered access to our courts. Because of that, I offer four concrete proposals to both stymie dictators' access to U.S. courts as plaintiffs—through a proposed foreign sovereign anti-SLAPP statute—and weaken the protections that dictators enjoy as defendants. Simply stated, U.S. courts should not be instruments of foreign authoritarian oppression.

• Publisher: University of Chicago Law Review,University of Chicago, acting on behalf of the University of Chicago Law Review
• Subject: Courthouses / Courts / Dictators / Election interference / Elections / Human rights / Immunities of foreign states / International relations / Litigation / Noncitizens / Political aspects / Separation of powers / Social aspects / State court decisions