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19 N.Y.U. J. Int'l L. & Pol. 603 (1986-1987)
The International Enforcement of Public Rights

handle is hein.journals/nyuilp19 and id is 613 raw text is: THE INTERNATIONAL ENFORCEMENT OF PUBLIC RIGHTS F.A. MANN* Citizens, firms, and their governments often assert legal claims in for- eign countries; such cases are filled with issues that affect conceptions of international law. In this article, Dr. Mann addresses a group of these cases, specifically, those concerning the enforcement abroad of public rights of sovereign states. He first discusses the rule throughout the world that such enforcement is generally not allowed. He then considers the rationalefor the rule, its distinction between public and private rights, certain characteristics of public rights, the identity of those who pursue public rights, and the dis- tinction between direct and indirect enforcement of public rights. Di Mann concludes that these cases often pose difficult issues; the guide toward appro- priate outcomes, he finds, should not be narrow questions of, for example, what is a revenue law, but rather broader questions of what is an inter- national assertion of a sovereign, or public, right. I. The Restatement (First) of Conflict of Laws, appearing in 1934, provided in section 610 that no action can be maintained on a right created by the law of a foreign state as a method of furthering its own governmental interests.' This provision was supplemented by another section, which specifically prohibited a state from enforcing foreign penal- ties.2 The Restatement (Second) of 1971 deleted the former section, but retained the latter, the authors expressly with- holding an opinion on the recoverability of foreign taxes.3 From the standpoint of international relations, which are the exclusive concern of these observations, the old sec- tion 610 should have been included in the Restatement (Sec- ond) because that section correctly stated what was and is the law not only in the United States, but also in countries all * F.B.A., Honorary Member of the American Society of International Law. For the author's earlier clarifications of the subject, see Mann, infra note 33; Mann, Conflict of Laws and Public Law, 132 REcUEIL DES CouRts 107, 166-81 (1971). 1. RESTATEMENT (FiRsT) OF CONFLICT OF LAWS § 610 (1934). 2. Id. § 611. 3. RESTATEMENT (SECOND) OF CONFLICT OF LqAws § 89 (1971); id. § 89 comment b. 603 Imaged with the Permission of N.Y.U. Journal of International Law and Politics

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