Terrorism Exception under the United States Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act

The United States Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976 (FSIA) guarantees foreign states to enjoy their sovereign immunity status when they engage in public or sovereign acts. However, when foreign states participate in private or commercial acts, they may lose their jurisdictional immunity. Likewise, under the terrorism exception of the FSIA enacted in 1996, when a foreign state sponsors terrorist activities, and thus is designated as a state sponsor of terrorism, victims of such terrorist attacks can bring a civil action against the state in the United States courts. This paper looks into how the FSIA’s terrorism exception had been developed and how it is interpreted in courts. Then, the paper analyzes cases related to terrorism exception to find out how courts in the United States had interpreted the terrorism exception provisions of the FSIA in relation to issues of the retroactive application of terrorism exception, punitive damages, and attachment and execution of the property of foreign states sponsor of terrorism. Briefly. the paper touches upon Otto Warmbier’s case against North Korea, and cases related to Iranian assets in relation to enforcement of judgments.