Justices Kagan, Kavanaugh mention brief co-written by Professor Dodge

On Dec. 7, the United States Supreme Court heard oral argument in Hungary v. Simon, a case in which Holocaust survivors have sued Hungary under the expropriation exception of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act. Professor William S. Dodge filed an amicus brief, co-written with Professor Maggie Gardner (Cornell), arguing that the Supreme Court should not adopt the doctrine of international comity abstention urged by Hungary. At oral argument, Justice Elena Kagan asked Hungary’s counsel to respond directly to the arguments in the amicus brief (Tr. 16). Justice Brett Kavanaugh later acknowledged that the amicus brief raised “important arguments” (Tr. 74-75), though he seemed less convinced by them. A decision in this case and its companion, Germany v. Philipp, is expected in the spring.

Professor Dodge is Martin Luther King Jr. Professor of Law and John D. Ayer Chair in Business Law at UC Davis School of Law. He is a leading expert on international law, international transactions, and international dispute resolution, and served as Counselor on International Law to the Legal Adviser at the U.S. Department of State from 2011-12 and as a reporter for the American Law Institute’s Restatement (Fourth) of Foreign Relations Law from 2012-18. Professor Dodge is a co-author of the casebook Transnational Business Problems and a co-editor of International Law in the U.S. Supreme Court: Continuity and Change, which won the American Society of International Law’s 2012 certificate of merit. He has authored more than 60 other publications in books and law reviews.