Presidential Authority to Waive International Organization Immunities Under U.S. Immunities Act

Cite as: 586 U.S. (2019) 15 BREYER, J., dissenting a suit would lead to “disruptive interference” with the organization’s functions, the waiver does not apply. bid. Other organizations have attempted to solve the liabil- ity/immunity problem by turning to multilateral, not single-nation, solutions. The UN, for instance, has agreed to “make provisions for appropriate modes of set- tlement of ... [d]isputes arising out of contracts or other disputes of a private law character.” Convention on Privi- leges and Immunities of the United Nations, Art. VIII, §29, 21 U.S. T. 1488, T. I. A.S. No. 6900. It generally does so by agreeing to submit commercial disputes to arbitration. See Restatement (Third) of Foreign Relations Law of the United States §467, Reporters’ Note 7 (1987). Other organizations, including the IFC, have set up alter- native accountability schemes to resolve disputes that might otherwise end up in court. See World Bank, Inspec- tion Panel: About Us (deseribing World Bank’s three- member “independent complaints mechanism” for those “who believe that they have been ... adversely affected by a World Bank-funded project”), https://inspectionpanel.org/ about-us/about-inspection-panel (as last visited Feb. 25, 2019); Compliance Advisor Ombudsman, How We Work: CAO Dispute Resolution (describing IFC and Multi- lateral Investment Guarantee Agency dispute-resolution process, the main objective of which is to help resolve issues raised about the “social and environmental impacts of IFC/MIGA projects”), www.cao-ombudsman.org/howwework/ ombudsman. These alternatives may sometimes prove inadequate. And, if so, the Immunities Act itself offers a way for Amer- ica’s Executive Branch to set aside an organization’s im- munity and to allow a lawsuit to proceed in U.S. courts. The Act grants to the President the authority to “with- hold,” to “withdraw,” to “condition,” or to “limit” any of the Act’s “immunities” in “light of the functions performed by any such international organization.” 22 U.S. C. §288. HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_028573