The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit recently dismissed a long-running dispute against Russia concerning the library of the Lubavitcher Rebbe (the Library), a collection of books and papers once held by the then-Rebbe of the Chabad Lubavitch movement. Agudas Chasidei Chabad of United States v. Russian Fed’n, 110 F.4th 242 (D.C. Cir. 2024) (Chabad 2024). Brought under what is known as the expropriation exception, 28 U.S.C. § 1605(a)(3), of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (the FSIA), the case has involved Russia’s withdrawal from the case and default, sanctions of $50,000 per day for non-compliance and a judgment of more than $175 million, a retaliatory embargo on cultural property exchange that continues to this day, and multiple appeals.
In the most recent decision, the court of appeals held that the second element of the expropriation exception (what is known as the commercial nexus requirement) was not met and therefore deprived the court of any jurisdiction. Specifically, the D.C. Circuit held that if the defendant is the foreign state, the expropriation exception may only be invoked if the property is physically present in the United States (which the Rebbe’s library is not). The Supreme Court has declined to review two relatively recent cases that reached the same conclusion, it will bear watching of the plaintiffs seek further review now given a circuit split with the 9th Circuit on the issue.
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Topics:
de Csepel,
Immunity from Seizure,
Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act,
Supreme Court,
Agudas Chasidei Chabad,
Russian Federation,
FSIA,
expropriation exception”,
sovereign immunity,
Russian State Library,
Chabad,
Federal Republic of Germany,
Welfenschatz,
D.C. Circuit,
Federal Republic of Germany v. Philipp,
Simon v. Republic of Hungary,
Lubavitcher Rebbe,
Schubarth,
Judge Randolph,
Brett Kavanaugh,
Judge Griffith
I am looking forward to being in Vienna next week for the start of the conference to be held at the University of Vienna Library beginning Tuesday evening, May 2, 2017. The conference goes until May 4. Entitled “Accepting and Holding Objects in Trust—an International and Interdisciplinary Perspective,” the conference will explore a variety of restitution-related topics. From the program, the schedule is below (papers will be given in part in English, but it appears mostly in German). Registration is available until April 30, hope to see you there.
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Topics:
Russian State Library,
Kunsthistorisches Museum,
Austria,
Jewish Museum Prague,
University of Vienna,
Dr. Regina Hitzenberger,
Hannah M. Lessing,
Victims of National Socialism,
Olivia Kaiser,
Christina Köstner - Pemsel,
Markus Stumpf,
Oliver Rathkolb,
Institut für Rechts-und Verfassungsgeschichte,
Leonhard Weidinger,
Michael Wladika,
Anneliese Schallmeiner,
Alexandra Caruso,
Bundesdenkmalamt (BDA),
Thomas Rudert,
Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden,
Jana Kocourek,
SLUB Dresden,
Petra Winter,
Zentralarchiv der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin,
Preußischer Kulturbesitz,
Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin,
Reinhard Buchberger,
Michal Bušek,
Tomáš Foltýn,
Marcela Strouhalova,
Czech National Library,
Prague,
Michael Nosek,
Johana Prouzová,
Bertrand Perz,
Monika Mayer,
Monika Löscher,
Christian Mertens,
Philipp Mettauer,
Wienbibliothek im Rathaus,
INJOEST,
Pia Schölnberger,
Johannes Gramlich,
Stephan Kellner,
Murray Hall,
Institut für Germanistik,
Kamil Zeidler,
Julia Stepnowska,
Nawojka Cieslinska-Lobkowicz,
Lara Lempertienė,
Ekaterina Oleshkevich,
Anna Kawałko,
Hebrew University,
Jörn Kreuzer,
National Fund,
Dr. James Bindenagel,
Institut für Zeitgeschichte,
Sebastian Spitra,
Christian George,
UB Mainz,
Sammlung Pollák in Prager Museen,
Kommission für Provenienzforschung,
Albertina Wien,
Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen München,
Judaica Center National Library, Vilnius,
Institut Geschichte der Juden
It has been quite some time since there was occasion to update the dispute between the Chabad Lubavitch movement and Russia over Chabad’s efforts to obtain the return of the library of the movement’s late rabbi Menachem Schneerson and his predecessors (each known in his respective era as the “Rebbe”). There is now a major development. The court has granted the Chabad plaintiffs’ request to turn the daily sanctions that began to accrue in 2013 into an interim judgment, that is, to tally the $50,000 daily fines to date. The U.S. District Court in Washington, DC has done so, and entered a judgment against the Russian Federation, the Russian State Military Archive, the Russian State Library, and the Russian Ministry of Culture and Mass Communication, for a total of $43.7 million. Notably, the judgment will increase automatically by $4.5 million every 90 days if not satisfied; the plaintiffs will not have to return to the court and ask for an amended judgment. Plaintiffs have already begun efforts to identify assets from which that judgment could be collected.
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Topics:
Latvia,
Sberbank,
Nazi Germany,
Russian State Military Archive,
Menachem Schneerson,
Russian Ministry of Culture and Mass Communication,
Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act,
Rebbe,
28 U.S.C. § 1603,
Russian Federation,
FSIA,
Restitution,
Russian State Library,
World War II,
Foreign Sovereign Immunities,
Poland,
Chabad Lubavitch,
Soviet Union,
Museums
