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Jam v International Finance Corporation: The US Supreme Court Decision and its Aftermath

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2020

Marco SIMONS Open the ORCID record for Marco SIMONS [Opens in a new window]  and
MacKennan GRAZIANO
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Abstract

A year ago, in Jam v International Finance Corporation, fishing and farming families from rural India achieved a historic US Supreme Court victory over one of the world’s largest financial institutions. The Supreme Court decided that the World Bank Group, and similar international organizations, do not automatically enjoy ‘absolute’ immunity from suit, but instead can be sued under the same circumstances as foreign governments can be sued in United States (US) courts – including suits based on their commercial activities in the US.

Keywords

Foreign Sovereign Immunities Actinternational organizationsovereign immunityWorld Bank
Type
Developments in the Field
Information
Business and Human Rights Journal , Volume 5 , Issue 2 , July 2020 , pp. 282 - 288
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

*

Marco Simons is General Counsel and MacKennan Graziano is a Bertha Justice Fellow at EarthRights International, USA, which is counsel for the plaintiffs in Jam v International Finance Corporation and Doe v IFC Asset Management Co. 139 S Ct 759 (2019).

References

1 Plaintiffs’ Complaint, Jam v International Finance Corporation, No 15-cv-00612 (D.D.C. filed 23 April 2015).

2 Complaint from Machimar Adhikar Sangharsh Sangathan (MASS, Association for the Struggle for Fishworkers Rights) regarding Tata Ultra Mega (11 June 2011), http://www.cao-ombudsman.org/cases/document-links/documents/TataMundraCAOComplaint_June112011.pdf (accessed 10 June 2020).

3 Compliance Advisor Ombudsman, ‘CAO Audit of IFC Investment in Coastal Gujarat Power Limited, India’ (22 August 2013), http://www.cao-ombudsman.org/cases/document-links/documents/CAOAuditReportC-I-R6-Y12-F160.pdf (accessed 9 April 2020).

4 22 U.S.C. § 288a(b).

5 139 S Ct at 772.

6 The IOIA also allows suit where international organizations have waived their immunity. The Jam plaintiffs also argue that the IFC’s own charter includes a broad waiver of immunity that authorizes their lawsuit.

7 28 U.S.C. § 1605.

8 These are the Commission for Labor Cooperation (a NAFTA entity), the Great Lakes Fishery Commission, the Inter-American Defense Board, the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission, the International Boundary & Water Commission (jointly headquartered in Mexico), the International Cotton Advisory Committee, the International Food Policy Research Institute, the International Joint Commission – United States and Canada, the International Pacific Halibut Commission, the Pan American Health Organization, and the United States–Mexico Border Health Commission.

9 See International Finance Corporation, ‘IFC Position Statement on Retaliation Against Civil Society and Project Stakeholders’ (October 2018), https://www.ifc.org/wps/wcm/connect/ade6a8c3-12a7-43c7-b34e-f73e5ad6a5c8/EN_IFC_Reprisals_Statement_201810.pdf?MOD=AJPERES (accessed 9 April 2020); Compliance Advisor Ombudsman, ‘CAO Approach to Responding to Concerns of Threats and Incidents of Reprisals in CAO Operations’, http://www.cao-ombudsman.org/newsroom/documents/documents/CAOApproachtoThreatsandIncidentsofReprisals_October2017.pdf (accessed 9 April 2020).

10 C Daniel, K Genovese, M van Huijstee and S Singh (eds), ‘Glass Half Full? The State of Accountability in Development Finance’, SOMO, Amsterdam (January 2016), https://www.somo.nl/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Glass-half-full.pdf (accessed 9 April 2020) at 8, 48–50, 57.

11 Compliance Advisor Ombudsman, ‘CAO Audit of IFC Investment in Coastal Gujarat Power Limited, India’ (22 August 2013), http://www.cao-ombudsman.org/cases/document-links/documents/CAOAuditReportC-I-R6-Y12-F160.pdf (accessed 9 April 2020).

12 See Philippe Le Houérou, ‘Opinion: At IFC, Accountability is of Utmost Importance’, Devex (10 April 2019), https://www.devex.com/news/opinion-at-ifc-accountability-is-of-utmost-importance-94667 (accessed 9 April 2020).

13 Sophie Edwards, ‘Advocates Welcome IFC Reforms, but with Some Caveats’, Devex (17 June 2019), https://www.devex.com/news/advocates-welcome-ifc-reforms-but-with-some-caveats-95044 (accessed 9 April 2020).

14 See Philippe Le Houérou, note 14.

15 Sophie Edwards, ‘First Test for World Bank Board’s New Accountability Powers’, Devex (6 February 2020), https://www.devex.com/news/first-test-for-world-bank-board-s-new-accountability-powers-96501 (accessed 9 April 2020).

16 World Bank Group, ‘Draft for Consultation: World Bank Group Strategy for Fragility, Conflict, and Violence (FCV) 2020–2025’ (5 December 2019), https://consultations.worldbank.org/sites/default/files/consultations/1636/2019-12/DRAFT_WBG_Strategy_for_FCV-December_5_2019.pdf (accessed 9 April 2020).

17 28 U.S.C. § 1603(d).

18 ‘J.P. Morgan Launches Development Finance Institution’, J.P. Morgan (21 January 2020), https://www.jpmorgan.com/global/news/2020-DFI-Announcement (accessed 9 April 2020).

19 136 S Ct 390 (2015).

20 Ibid at 396.

21 Ibid.

22 Jam v International Finance Corporation, No. 15-612, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 25923, at *24 (D.D.C. 14 February 2020).

23 Ibid at *25.

24 Ibid at *31.

25 Ibid at *32.

26 Ibid at *28.

27 ‘Juana Doe et al. v. IFC’, EarthRights International, https://earthrights.org/case/juana-doe-et-al-v-ifc/ (accessed 9 April 2020).