Here is an excerpt fron this blog post by Kevin LaCroix at The D + O Diary: “The Latest Stanford Financial Group Lawsuit: According to a July 13, 2009 Bloomberg article (here), Stanford Group investors have filed a class actoin lawsuit in the Southern District of Texas against The Commonwealth of Antigua and Barbuda, alleging that the Caribbean nation helped the financier engineer a massive fraud. The complaint (here) , purports to be filed on behalf of all individuals and in

Jones Day lawyers wrote a detailed article on new Chinese Supreme Court rules regarding litigation over non-performing loans and state-owned banks. This is not quite tort litigation, but provides yet another example of the accelerating relationships between legal sytems, and the difficult issues that may arise when dealing with state-owned entities. You can see the article here on Mondaq if registered or here on the Jones Day website. #Sovereigns

Do not miss a fascinating June 24 article in the New York Times regarding the tort litigation seeking damages from the Saudi royal family for the 9/11 attacks, and make sure to click back through the prior articles and briefs linked to in the past articles. One issue of course is sovereign immunity. Another issue is secrecy – the article quotes from documents said to help prove the claim that some members of the royal family provided financial support to groups said to be lin

The June 8, 2009 opinion is here. I’ve not made time to read it. Scotusblog provides a synopsis here. The bottom line is a holding that claims for torture etc under Hussein can not be made because of legislation signed by President Bush II. #Sovereigns

Walter Olson’s Overlawyered blog post steers readers to a New York Times article with a link to the US government’s brief opposing suit against Saudi Arabia for 9/11. Interesting reading on the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act. #FSIA #Sovereigns

A May 29, 2009 law.com article by Mark Hamblett updates on this case. The update provides some additional legal commentary and indicates jury selection was delayed this week, perhaps for settlement talks. ______________________________________________ A May 7, 2009 Law.com article by Mark Hamblett from the New York Law Joournal describes an upcoming trial for a fascinating “crimes against humanity” case against Shell by Nigerians. To whet your appetite, here are some exceprt

More and more sovereign entities will face tort litigation in the foreseeable future because they are involved in businesses through direct or indirect owenership. A wrinkle on that general issue is whether and when the Holy See, a/k/a The Vatican , can be sued. The issues are complex because it is a nation state. Recent case law in the area is summarized in an interesting article by Russell Jackson of Skadden Arps. He also hosts a blog at www.consumerclassactionsmasstorts

More and more tort litigation will involve suits against entities that operate outside the United States and through the Internet. Accordingly, I noted with interest an April 6, 2009 National Law Journal article by Pamela MacLean regarding payday lenders proving difficult to pursue in unfair and deceptive trade practice cases filed by state attorneys’ general. Why are they hard to pursue? According to the article, many of them have moved to internet presences and have moved o