D.C. Circuit Relies on Article by Professor Dodge to Reject International Comity Claim

On July 27, the D.C. Circuit relied on a 2015 article by Professor William S. Dodge to reject Turkey’s argument that claims of protesters beaten by Turkish security forces in Washington, D.C. should be dismissed on grounds of international comity. Much of the opinion addressed whether Turkey was immune from suit under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) because its security forces had exercised a discretionary function, an argument the court rejected. But Turkey also argued that the claims should be dismissed based on international comity. Following Dodge’s framework in "International Comity in American Law," 115 Colum. L. Rev. 2071, the court distinguished three categories of comity: prescriptive comity, adjudicative comity, and sovereign party comity. Concluding that Turkey’s claim was one of sovereign party comity—in the form of immunity from suit—the court held that the FSIA had established a comprehensive framework, leaving no room for a court to override the exceptions to immunity that Congress created.

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, who 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 Transnational Business Problems and Transnational Litigation in a Nutshell, 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.

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