Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/18pdf/17-1011_mkhn.pdf
Page Number: 26.0

Cite as:  586 U. S. ____ (2019) 

7 

BREYER, J., dissenting 

the  International  Monetary  Fund,  Art.  IX,  §3,  Dec.  27, 
1945, 60 Stat. 1413, T. I. A. S. No. 1501.  UNRRA required 
members,  absent  waiver,  to  accord  the  organization  “the 
facilities,  privileges,  immunities,  and  exemptions  which 
they  accord  to  each  other,  including  . . .  [i]mmunity  from
suit  and  legal  process.”    2  UNRRA,  A  Compilation  of  the 
Resolutions  on  Policy:  First  and  Second  Sessions  of  the 
UNRRA  Council,  Res.  No.  32,  p. 51  (1944).    And  the  UN 
Charter  required  member  states  to  accord  the  UN  “such
privileges and immunities as are necessary for the fulfill-
ment of its purposes.”  Charter of the United Nations, Art. 
105, 59 Stat. 1053, June 26, 1945, T. S. No. 993. 

These  international  organizations  expected  the  United 
States  to  provide  them  with  essentially  full  immunity.
And  at  the  time  the  treaties  were  written,  Congress  un-
derstood  that  foreign  governments  normally  enjoyed  im-
munity  with  respect  to  their  commercial,  as  well  as  their 
noncommercial, activities.  Thus, by granting international 
organizations  “the  same 
from  suit”  that 
foreign  governments  enjoyed,  Congress  expected  that
international  organizations  would  similarly  have  immu-
nity in both commercial and noncommercial suits.

immunity 

More  than  that,  Congress  likely  recognized  that  immu-
nity in the commercial area was even more important for
many  international  organizations  than  it  was  for  most 
foreign  governments.  Unlike  foreign  governments,  inter-
national  organizations  are  not  sovereign  entities  engaged
in a host of different activities.  See R. Higgins, Problems
&  Process:  International  Law  and  How  We  Use  It  93 
(1994)  (organizations  do  not  act  with  “ ‘sovereign  author- 
ity,’ ” and “to assimilate them to states . . . is not correct”). 
Rather,  many  organizations  (including  four  of  the  five  I 
mentioned above) have specific missions that often require 
them to engage in what U. S. law may well consider to be
commercial activities.  See infra, at 12. 

Nonetheless, under the majority’s view, the immunity of