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Ted FolkmanCase of the Day: Yukos v. RussiaBill Dodge has a <a href="https://tlblog.org/serving-process-on-russia-through-diplomatic-channels-under-the-fsia/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">good post</a> at the Transnational Litigation Blog about today’s case of the day, <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.241561/gov.uscourts.dcd.241561.104.0.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Yukos Capital Ltd. v. Russian Federation (D.D.C. 2025)</a>. The case was for confirmation of an arbitral award. Yukos served process on Russia under 28 U.S.C. § 1608(a)(4) through diplomatic channels. But the method was unusual. Typically, when you have to serve process in this way, you request the State Department to make service, and the State Department arranges for the US embassy abroad to deliver the papers, with a diplomatic note, to the Foreign Ministry. This is what the State Department’s regulations generally provide (<a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/22/93.1" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">22 C.F.R. § 93.1</a>), though the regulation provides that “If the foreign state so requests or if otherwise appropriate,” the State Department can instead deliver the papers and the diplomatic note “to the embassy of the foreign state in the District of Columbia.” Here, the State Department delivered the papers with a diplomatic note to the Russian embassy in Washington. I don’t know why the State Department did things that way. In any event, Russia argued that the court lacked personal jurisdiction because it had not been properly served. It argued that the service was improper because Russia refused delivery of the papers at the embassy, and thus it was not “appropriate,” to use the word of the regulation, to serve process at the embassy, especially in light of the inviolability of the embassy premises under the Vienna Convention.The judge rejected Russia’s position. Some of his reasoning is not persuasive to me. For example, he argued that requiring service on the foreign ministry in Moscow instead of the embassy would make § 1608(a)(4) duplicative of § 1608(a)(3), which provides for service on the Foreign Minister. But that seems clearly wrong to me. Section 1608(a)(3) provides for service on the foreign minister by postal channels, while § 1608(a)(4) provides for service by diplomatic channels. Also, 1608(a)(3) calls for service on the foreign minister, a distinction that has been inportant in <a href="https://lettersblogatory.com/2018/01/22/case-of-the-day-kumar-v-sudan-with-a-circuit-split/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">prior cases</a>. 1He also reasoned that the regulation merely regulated the State Department’s internal processes and that a violation of the regulation—if there was a violation—would not render the service improper. But it seems to me that the contents of the regulation might be evidence of what the United States position is on the requirements of customary international law.I agree with everything Bill writes in his post, though I think that the issue really boils down to the question of what customary international law has to say, a point the judge did not really address. The <a href="https://treaties.un.org/doc/source/recenttexts/english_3_13.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">U.N. Convention on the Jurisdictional Immunities of States and Their Properties</a> (which is not a binding treaty) suggests that service of process in the circumstances of cases like this must be by “transmission through diplomatic channels to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the State concerned.” But maybe the Convention doesn’t accurately state the customary international law on this point. Bill writes: “Even if one could show widespread practice limiting transmission of service through diplomatic channels to foreign ministries, one would have to show that such practice was followed from a sense of legal obligation (opinio juris) in order to establish a rule of customary international law.”I don’t know the answer to the customary international law question. But surely the safer course is to transmit the document to the Foreign Ministry rather than the embassy, if only to avoid needless litigation about service.<ol><li>The Kumar case suggests some uncertainty about Bill’s point that there is no Vienna Convention issue here. ↩︎</li></ol><a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://lettersblogatory.com/tag/fsia/" target="_blank">#FSIA</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://lettersblogatory.com/tag/recognition-and-enforcement/" target="_blank">#RecognitionAndEnforcement</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://lettersblogatory.com/tag/russia/" target="_blank">#Russia</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://lettersblogatory.com/tag/vienna-convention/" target="_blank">#ViennaConvention</a>

Kevin Karhan :verified:<a href="https://beige.party/@HarriettMB" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@HarriettMB</a> I do expect <a href="https://social.bund.de/@antidiskriminierung" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@antidiskriminierung</a> and <a href="https://social.bund.de/@AuswaertigesAmt" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@AuswaertigesAmt</a> to affirm <a href="https://infosec.space/tags/AntiDiscrimination" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#AntiDiscrimination</a> <a href="https://infosec.space/tags/laws" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#laws</a> and either force the <a href="https://infosec.space/tags/US" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#US</a> embassy & consulates to comply with <a href="https://infosec.space/tags/Germany" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Germany</a>'s laws or close and cease operations.<ul><li>After all, <a href="https://infosec.space/tags/Ambassadors" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Ambassadors</a> are guests and <a href="https://infosec.space/tags/Embassies" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Embassies</a> are to be operated with <a href="https://infosec.space/tags/acceptance" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#acceptance</a> and <a href="https://infosec.space/tags/respect" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#respect</a> of the host country as per <a href="https://infosec.space/tags/ViennaConvention" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#ViennaConvention</a>.</li></ul>If the <a href="https://infosec.space/tags/USA" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#USA</a> refuses to acknowledge that, they there is no basis for <a href="https://infosec.space/tags/diplomacy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#diplomacy</a> and I urge <a href="https://infosec.space/tags/contractors" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#contractors</a> to press charges for <a href="https://infosec.space/tags/blackmail" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#blackmail</a> and <a href="https://infosec.space/tags/coercion" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#coercion</a> if they get approached to fulfill for such <a href="https://infosec.space/tags/racist" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#racist</a>, <a href="https://infosec.space/tags/sexist" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#sexist</a>, <a href="https://infosec.space/tags/ableist" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#ableist</a> and otherwise <a href="https://infosec.space/tags/discriminatory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#discriminatory</a> demands because doing so violates national and <a href="https://infosec.space/tags/EU" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#EU</a> <a href="https://infosec.space/tags/laws" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#laws</a>!<a href="https://infosec.space/tags/NotLegalAdvice" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#NotLegalAdvice</a> <a href="https://infosec.space/tags/USpol" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#USpol</a> <a href="https://infosec.space/tags/DEI" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#DEI</a>

Ted FolkmanJorge Glas is an Ecuadoran electrical engineer who served as vice president in the Correa administration. He stayed in office briefly under Correa’s successor, Lenín Moreno, but he was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/13/world/americas/ecuadors-vice-president-sentenced-to-6-years-in-corruption-case.html?searchResultPosition=7" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">convicted</a> of accepting millions of dollars in bribes in the Odebrecht scandal. He served years in prison and was later sentenced to many more years in prison. While on a kind of parole, he took refuge in the Mexican embassy in Quito in December 2023, claiming he was a victim of political persecution. Last month, the Ecuadoran government raided the embassy and arrested Glas, prompting <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/07/latin-american-governments-condemn-ecuador-after-police-raid-mexican-embassy" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">diplomatic protests</a> from around the world and a <a href="https://lettersblogatory.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/194-20240411-app-01-00-en.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">dispute</a> between Mexico and Ecuador at the ICJ. (You can read about the proceedings <a href="https://www.icj-cij.org/case/194" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">here</a>).The incident ties together a couple of old strands of Letters Blogatory posts. First is the Julian Assange diplomatic asylum case. The case was <a href="https://lettersblogatory.com/2012/06/21/assange-ecuador-asylum/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">full of irony</a> back in 2012, since Assange, a self-proclaimed champion of free speech rights, was seeking asylum from a government that had been persecuting its domestic press. The case also had a <a href="https://lettersblogatory.com/2016/02/08/the-working-group-on-arbitrary-detention-and-the-julian-assange-case/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">fair share of crazy</a>: the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention issued an opinion in 2016 arguing that Assange, who had skipped bail in the UK, where he was at risk of extradition to Sweden on charges of rape and sexual molestation, was somehow being arbitrarily detained in the embassy where he was hiding out. There’s irony today, too, in Ecuador of all countries raiding an embassy to make an arrest, both because of its stance in the Assange case and because Mexico and Ecuador (along with several other Latin American states) are both parties to the Convention on Diplomatic Asylum, while the UK, with most of the world, does not really recognize a right to diplomatic asylum.Second is Ecuador’s PR campaign at the height of the Donziger case in the US. In 2014, the government invited me and others to Ecuador to visit polluted sites in the Amazon and to attend a conference presenting the government’s side of the case. That trip led to one of my favorite series of Letters Blogatory posts: <a href="https://lettersblogatory.com/2014/08/01/lago-agrio-letters-blogatory-field/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">a post on the conference itself</a>, and <a href="https://lettersblogatory.com/2014/08/13/lago-agrio-visit-agua-rico-4/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">a post about what I saw in the Amazon</a>. During the conference, we visited the Carondelet Palace for a ninety-minute meeting with the vice president, Jorge Glas. The key legal question is the inviolability of diplomatic missions under the Vienna Convention. There are some difficult questions about what inviolability means. Does it prevent the host state from regulating the terms and conditions of employment of its nationals on embassy premises? And so forth. But sending the police to arrest someone inside an embassy does not seem like a close call, even if the embassy did not have the right to grant the person asylum (which in this case raises questions under the Latin American treaty on asylum I mentioned above). We will see how the ICJ comes out on these question, but I am comfortable hazarding a guess in this case that Mexico will prevail on the main question.I have no knowledge of the facts of the case against Glas, and so I don’t know whether or not he took bribes or whether or not he is a victim of political persecution. I will say that I remember him as a typical engineer, maybe even an “egghead,” very knowledgable about the technical details of oil extraction and much less charismatic and overtly political than President Correa, whose 2014 speech at the Kennedy School <a href="https://lettersblogatory.com/2014/04/10/lago-agrio-comes-boston/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">I covered</a> just before my visit. Just on a personal level, I wish him well.Photo Credit: <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BASE_AÉREA_MANTA_-_CDRL_(26403163332).jpg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Agencia de Noticias ANDES</a> (<a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">CC BY-SA</a>)<a href="https://lettersblogatory.com/2024/05/05/the-jorge-glas-affair/" class="" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://lettersblogatory.com/2024/05/05/the-jorge-glas-affair/</a><a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://lettersblogatory.com/tag/asylum/" target="_blank">#asylum</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://lettersblogatory.com/tag/ecuador/" target="_blank">#Ecuador</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://lettersblogatory.com/tag/mexico/" target="_blank">#Mexico</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://lettersblogatory.com/tag/vienna-convention/" target="_blank">#ViennaConvention</a>

MusiqueNow :pride: ✡️ 🇵🇸 :anarchismhebrew:<a href="https://mas.to/@radiofreearabia" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@radiofreearabia</a> What an infantile TWAT! Lord whateverthefuck is too STUPID to understand international LAW, the <a href="https://todon.eu/tags/ViennaConvention" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#ViennaConvention</a> or whatever!When an embassy or consulate is attacked...DUH... it;s declaring war on that embassy's country. OY vey! Ignorant <a href="https://todon.eu/tags/ToryScum" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#ToryScum</a> who fails up like the rest of the rightwing toffs!

MusiqueNow :pride: ✡️ 🇵🇸 :anarchismhebrew:<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vienna_Convention_on_Diplomatic_Relations" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vienna_Convention_on_Diplomatic_Relations</a> <a href="https://todon.eu/tags/ViennaConvention" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#ViennaConvention</a> on Diplomatic Relations <a href="https://todon.eu/tags/1961ViennaConvention" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#1961ViennaConvention</a> <a href="https://todon.eu/tags/internatinallaw" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#internatinallaw</a>

Vida Latina :mastodonworld:📌 Ecuador’s Embassy Raid ⤵️ 🔗 <a href="https://verfassungsblog.de/ecuadors-embassy-raid/" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank">https://verfassungsblog.de/ecuadors-embassy-raid/</a>🏷️ <a href="https://mastodon.world/tags/Ecuador" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Ecuador</a> <a href="https://mastodon.world/tags/M%C3%A9xico" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#México</a> <a href="https://mastodon.world/tags/Embassy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Embassy</a> <a href="https://mastodon.world/tags/Raid" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Raid</a> <a href="https://mastodon.world/tags/InternationalLaw" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#InternationalLaw</a> <a href="https://mastodon.world/tags/PoliticalAsylum" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#PoliticalAsylum</a> <a href="https://mastodon.world/tags/ViennaConvention" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#ViennaConvention</a>

EURACTIV Global EuropeLatin American governments rally around Mexico after embassy raid in Ecuador <a href="https://www.euractiv.com/section/global-europe/news/latin-american-governments-rally-around-mexico-after-embassy-raid-in-ecuador/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank">https://www.euractiv.com/section/global-europe/news/latin-american-governments-rally-around-mexico-after-embassy-raid-in-ecuador/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon</a> <a href="https://eupolicy.social/tags/Ecuador" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Ecuador</a> <a href="https://eupolicy.social/tags/Mexico" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Mexico</a> <a href="https://eupolicy.social/tags/ViennaConvention" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#ViennaConvention</a>

Ted FolkmanThe New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/24/nyregion/united-nations-general-assembly-bhutan.html?searchResultPosition=1" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">reported</a> on the story of the New Yorkers who live in an apartment building near the United Nations. Their building is next-door to Bhutan’s permanent mission to the UN. According to the neighbors, Bhutan keeps a “vexingly loud air-conditioning unit on the roof of the building.” So far, they haven’t had any luck in getting relief from the noise.The Times raises questions about whether anything can be done. “Enforcing any penalties could prove tricky, anyway, given the rules of diplomatic immunity.” This isn’t exactly right. Presumably if the neighbors sue anyone, it will be Bhutan itself and not any diplomat. So the diplomats’ immunity isn’t really the issue.It seems to me there are two issues here. The first is whether a claim for nuisance (the most likely claim, though there might be others) would be within an exception to Bhutan’s foreign sovereign immunity. The most likely exception is the noncommercial tort exception, which allows suits against foreign states that are not within the commercial activity exception and that do not attack “the exercise or performance or the failure to exercise or perform a discretionary function regardless of whether the discretion be abused.” It seems to me that a nuisance claim can likely survive in the Second Circuit, and that the foreign state cannot say, for example, that the claim is barred because it is based on a discretionary decision to locate the mission in a particular building or to install an air conditioner. See USAA v. Permanent Mission of the Republic of Namibia, 681 F.3d 103 (2d Cir. 2012). On the other hand, the Namibia case involved a wall that collapsed and caused actual, physical property damage. Here, the neighbors’ enjoyment of their own property has been injured, but has there been any “personal injury or … damage to or loss of property,” as the FSIA requires? I’m not sure.Second, is there an issue under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations arising out of the inviolability of the mission’s premises? The core concern protected by inviolability isn’t implicated here; no one is talking about entering the mission. Perhaps the remedy the plaintiffs might seek would be relevant. A damages remedy would arguably have nothing to do with the mission’s premises, while an equitable remedy requiring Bhutan to take steps within the premises might raise a real issue. See generally Harvey v. Permanent Mission of Sierra Leone, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 116858 (S.D.N.Y. Jul. 1, 2022), which touches on such issues.Photo Credit: <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Paro,_Bhutan_(49698813546).jpg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Nina R</a> (<a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">CC BY</a>)<a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://lettersblogatory.com/tag/bhutan/" target="_blank">#Bhutan</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://lettersblogatory.com/tag/fsia/" target="_blank">#FSIA</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://lettersblogatory.com/tag/vienna-convention/" target="_blank">#ViennaConvention</a><a href="https://lettersblogatory.com/2023/09/25/the-case-of-the-bhutanese-air-conditioner/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://lettersblogatory.com/2023/09/25/the-case-of-the-bhutanese-air-conditioner/</a>

dougzone 🇨🇦Diplomatic expulsions are all the rage! Canada has a playbook, and dougzone22 reveals it... <a href="https://dougzone22.ca/2023/05/07/diplomacy-be-damned/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://dougzone22.ca/2023/05/07/diplomacy-be-damned/</a> <a href="https://thecanadian.social/tags/DiplomaticExpulsions" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#DiplomaticExpulsions</a> <a href="https://thecanadian.social/tags/ViennaConvention" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#ViennaConvention</a> :dougcoffee:

bikejournoFrom <a href="https://mastodon.cloud/tags/Berlin" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Berlin</a> to <a href="https://mastodon.cloud/tags/Manchester" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Manchester</a>, the inhumane <a href="https://mastodon.cloud/tags/regimes" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#regimes</a> of <a href="https://mastodon.cloud/tags/China" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#China</a> and <a href="https://mastodon.cloud/tags/Iran" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Iran</a> show their brutality abroad and that they feel nothing but full contempt for democratic <a href="https://mastodon.cloud/tags/liberties" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#liberties</a> and the <a href="https://mastodon.cloud/tags/ruleoflaw" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#ruleoflaw</a>.Any personnel of embassies or consulates involved in acts of <a href="https://mastodon.cloud/tags/violence" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#violence</a> against peaceful protestors need to be expelled right away. The <a href="https://mastodon.cloud/tags/viennaconvention" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#viennaconvention</a> does not include a right to exert violence from embassies or consulates (has been an issue with <a href="https://mastodon.cloud/tags/Turkey" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Turkey</a> in the past as well). <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/31/protesters-attacked-near-iranian-embassy-in-berlin" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/31/protesters-attacked-near-iranian-embassy-in-berlin</a>

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