Stephens v. National Distillers & Chemical Corp.

CALABRESI, Circuit Judge:

The Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA),1 “sets forth the sole and exclusive standards to be used in resolving questions of sovereign immunity raised by foreign states before Federal and State courts in the United States.” H.R.Rep. No. 94-1487, 94th Cong., 2d Sess. (1976), reprinted in 1976 U.S.C.C.A.N. 6604, 6610. The Supreme Court has described the FSIA as a “comprehensive set of legal standards,” Verlinden B.V. v. Central Bank of Nig., 461 U.S. 480, 488, 103 S.Ct. 1962, 1968, 76 L.Ed.2d 81 (1983), preempting other laws purporting to set forth different rules…