[opiniojuris] Julian Ku: India and New York Will Square Off at US Supreme Court (Over Property Taxes)

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Posted by Julian Ku:
India and New York Will Square Off at US Supreme Court (Over Property Taxes)
http://www.opiniojuris.org/posts/1169532302.shtml


   During my recent blog-vacation, I didn't notice that the U.S. Supreme
   Court has granted certiorari last week in a neat little case involving
   the [1]Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations v. the City of
   New York.
   The dispute is whether New York City's suit to to recover unpaid
   property taxes imposed on property owned by the Government of India is
   exempted from the general rule of foreign sovereign immunity. More
   interestingly, at least from my perspective, the case may also
   consider whether the lower court (the U.S. Court of the Appeals for
   the Second Circuit) improperly relied on two international agreements
   regarding foreign sovereign immunity to which the United States is not
   a party in finding in favor of the City.
   There are a lot of neat issues here about the level of judicial
   deference owed to the executive branch and the proper use of treaties
   to interpret federal statutes governing foreign sovereign immunity
   (some of which John Bellinger alluded to in his post last week
   [2]here), but I won't bore you with them at this point. This case, as
   well as the blockbuster Medellin case (which seems likely to win
   certiorari as well, see SCOTUSBlog's summary [3]here), are likely to
   be the U.S. Supreme Court's leading international law cases this Term.

References

   1. http://www.supremecourtus.gov/orders/courtorders/011907pzr.pdf
   2. http://www.opiniojuris.org/posts/1169061745.shtml
   3. http://www.scotusblog.com/movabletype/archives/2007/01/new_test_of_pre.html