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Updated: May 11, 2020 6:15:10 pm
U.S. courts do not have jurisdiction as countries are protected from being sued in U.S. courts by the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA), which was first enacted in 1976.
Late last month, the US state of Missouri filed a lawsuit against China, which includes the government, the Chinese Communist Party and Chinese officials, seeking to claim damages for the loss of life, “human suffering” and economic losses that residents of the been due to the COVID-19 pandemic, whose first cases emerged from Wuhan in China in December 2019. Missouri has seen more than 9,000 infections so far, with new cases still on the rise according to The New York Times.
While Missouri is the only state in the United States to have filed a lawsuit, there are now also citizens and individual companies in the country that are trying to sue China for the spread of the virus.
What does the lawsuit say?
The lawsuit claims that a “heinous” campaign of “deception, concealment, wrongdoing and inaction by the Chinese authorities unleashed this pandemic.”
: We will speak to Nilesh Shah, a part-time member of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council.
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“During the critical weeks of the initial outbreak, Chinese authorities misled the public, suppressed crucial information, arrested whistleblowers, denied person-to-person transmission in the face of mounting evidence, destroyed critical medical investigations, allowed millions of people to be exposed to the virus and even accumulated personal protective equipment, causing a global pandemic that was unnecessary and preventable, “the lawsuit says.
He adds that due to the pandemic, the state has seen the highest unemployment rate since the Great Depression, and therefore the state’s goal is to sue China for four reasons: causing public nuisance, engaging in abnormally dangerous activities, allowing transmission of COVID-19 and hoarding of personal protective equipment (PPE).
Do US courts have jurisdiction over foreign countries?
US courts have no jurisdiction as countries are protected from being sued in US courts by the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA), which was first enacted in 1976. Essentially, the law limits the role of the executive in lawsuits. against foreign governments and governments. entities.
However, there are certain exceptions to this law, which can be used. For example, the Missouri lawsuit has claimed jurisdiction over Chinese government defendants by citing an exception in the aforementioned act that relates to commercial activity.
The exception states the following: “A foreign state shall not be immune from the jurisdiction of the courts of the United States or of the States in any case: … (2) in which the action is based on a commercial activity carried out in the United States by the foreign state; or in an act performed in the United States in connection with a foreign state’s commercial activity elsewhere; or in an act outside the territory of the United States in connection with a state’s commercial activity foreigner elsewhere and that act has a direct effect on the United States. ” Other exceptions include monetary damages, property taken in violation of international law, and the explicit or implicit waiver of immunity by the foreign state, among others.
Still, although the lawsuit cites the exception, it is difficult to prove such claims. According to an Associated Press report, efforts are underway in Congress to make it easier for state legislatures to sue China and other countries.
US Senators Martha McSally, Steve Daines and Marsha Blackburn last week introduced the “China-Borne Viral Infectious Diseases Act (COVID),” which seeks to empower American citizens to sue China in US courts. A statement posted on the McSally website said: “The Stop COVID Act will make China legally and financially responsible for unleashing the COVID-19 infection in our country.” Americans will have the legal tools to sue China in the US federal court system. USA To create and worsen this global pandemic. “
According to the statement, this legislation is based on the FSIA and eliminates sovereign immunity for states that spread biological agents.
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