In an expert analysis published in Law360, Partners David Ogden and David Bowker, and Counsel Alyson Zureick deep-dive into CC/Devas Ltd. v. Antrix Corp, where the Supreme Court must decide whether the Ninth Circuit correctly concluded that a minimum contacts requirement should be implied in the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA).
Excerpt: “The Supreme Court now has the opportunity to bring the Ninth Circuit's precedent in line with other circuits that have concluded that a minimum contacts analysis does not apply to foreign state defendants — or reject that approach and raise the jurisdictional bar that plaintiffs must surmount when suing foreign states in US courts.
The court could decide the issue by interpreting the FSIA's long-arm provision and leave it at that (if it decides that the FSIA requires minimum contacts for personal jurisdiction), or it could tackle the thorny question of whether foreign states have due process rights — an issue it elided in Republic of Argentina v. Weltover Inc. in 1992 — and whether due process requires a minimum contacts analysis.”
