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10 Emory Int'l L. Rev. 741 (1996)
Human Rights vs. Sovereign Rights: The State Sponsored Terrorism Exception to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act

handle is hein.journals/emint10 and id is 753 raw text is: HUMAN RIGHTS VS. SOVEREIGN RIGHTS: THE STATE SPONSORED TERRORISM EXCEPTION TO THE FOREIGN SOVEREIGN IMMUNITIES ACT I. INTRODUCTION On December 21, 1988, Pan Am flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all 259 people on board and eleven people on the ground.1 On May 18, 1995, a U.S. district court dismissed a set of tort claims brought by relatives of the flight 103 victims against the Libyan government, which allegedly was responsible for the bombing.2 The court based its dismissal on the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA),3 which bars courts from exercising jurisdiction over foreign states for torts which occur outside the United States.4 In Smith v. The Social- ist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, relatives of two of the vic- tims on board flight 103 sued The Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya (Libya), alleging that Libya encouraged the bombing and asserting various tort claims.5 In dismissing the suit, the district court judge stated that Libya's alleged terrorist actions do not fall within the enumerated exceptions to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act and therefore Libya must be accorded sovereign immunity from suit.' This decision was hardly/ groundbreaking. U.S. courts have consistently resisted efforts to expand the exceptions to the FSIA to include extraterritorial acts of terrorism.7 1 Richard Witkin, U.S. Tightening Security Checks on Flights Abroad, N.Y. TIMES, Dec. 30, 1988, at Al. 2 Smith v. The Socialist People's Libyan, 886 F. Supp. 306 (E.D.N.Y. 1995). 3 Id. at 315. 4 28 U.S.C. §§ 1330, 1602-11 (1994) (Section 1604 grants immunity to foreign states from the jurisdiction of American courts. Section 1605(a)(5) makes an exception for claims involving injury or loss which occur within the United States). Smith, 886 F. Supp at 309. 6 Id. at 315. See, e.g., Persinger v. Islamic Republic of Iran, 729 F.2d 835, 842 (D.C.Cir. 1984) (holding that the noncommercial tort exception requires that both the tortious act as well as the injury occur in the United States). The plaintiff in Persinger tried to convince the

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