1、CRS INSIGHT Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress Legal SidebarLegal Sidebari i It Belongs in a Museum: Sovereign Immunity Shields Iranian Antiquities Even When It Does Not Protect Iran Updated March 22, 2018 Foreign sovereign immunity may protect property owned by nations designated as st
2、ate sponsors of terrorism, even when it does not shield the nations themselves, the Supreme Court held in Rubin v. Islamic Republic of Iran. In an 8-0 opinion delivered by Justice Sotomayor (with Justice Kagan recused), the Court ruled that the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) did not permit
3、U.S. victims of Iran-sponsored terrorist attacks to seize a collection of Persian antiquities on loan from Iran to a museum at the University of Chicago. Rubin underscores a common side effect of the FSIAs terrorism-related exceptions to sovereign immunity: although victims of terror attacks may be
4、able to obtain judgments against state sponsors of terrorismcurrently, Iran, Sudan, Syria, and North Koreathey often have little chance of seizing covered states property when seeking to collect their financial awards. Background on Rubin Rubin arose from a 1997 triple suicide bombing on a crowded p