The U.S. Supreme Court today heard oral arguments in two cases involving suits to recover the value of Jewish-owned property confiscated by governments in Hungary and Germany during World War II. In Republic of Hungary v. Simon (links to transcript and audio of full oral arguments), the Court was asked to decide on whether principles of international comity could be invoked by the district court to abstain from deciding the case under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act. The case was brought by surviving Hungarian nationals seeking to recover on behalf of a worldwide class the value of property taken from them during the Holocaust.
In an amicus brief, the United States government argued:
The United States has a paramount interest in ensuring that its foreign partners establish appropriate domestic redress and compensation mechanisms for Holocaust victims, and therefore seeks to prevent litigation in U.S. courts that could undermine that objective.
SCOTUSblog case page has links to all the filing in the case.
In Federal Republic of Germany v. Philipp (links to transcript and audio of full oral arguments), the Court, in addition to the comity question, is asked to decide whether the expropriation exception to sovereign immunity in the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act covers the taking of property in the Holocaust in violation of human rights provisions of international law. The suit seeks recovery for the forced sale at a fraction of its actual value of a collection of medieval reliquary art that had been purchased in 1929 by a consortium of Jewish art dealers in Germany.
SCOTUSblog case page has links to all the filing in the case.
AP reports on the arguments in both cases.
