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Cite as:  592 U. S. ____ (2021) 

1 

Opinion of the Court 

NOTICE:  This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the 
preliminary  print  of  the  United  States  Reports.  Readers  are  requested  to 
notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Court of the United States, Wash-
ington, D. C. 20543, of any typographical or other formal errors, in order that 
corrections may be made before the preliminary print goes to press. 

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES 

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No. 19–351 
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FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY, ET AL., 
PETITIONERS v. ALAN PHILIPP, ET AL. 

ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF 
APPEALS FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CIRCUIT 

[February 3, 2021]

 CHIEF  JUSTICE  ROBERTS  delivered  the  opinion  of  the 

Court. 

The Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act provides that for-
eign nations are presumptively immune from the jurisdic-
tion  of  United  States  courts.    The  statute,  however,  sets 
forth several specific exceptions.  One such exception pro-
vides that a sovereign does not enjoy immunity in any case
“in which rights in property taken in violation of interna-
tional law are in issue.”  28 U. S. C. §1605(a)(3).  The ques-
tion presented is whether a country’s alleged taking of prop-
erty from its own nationals falls within this exception. 

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This case concerns several dozen medieval relics and de-
votional objects known as the Welfenschatz.  The treasure 
(“schatz”) of the German Welf dynasty, the pieces date back 
to the early days of the Holy Roman Empire and occupy a
unique position in German history and culture.  The collec-
tion  was  assembled  within  Germany’s  Brunswick  Cathe-
dral  over  the  course  of  several  centuries,  before  being 
moved to a Hanoverian chapel in 1671 and later to Switzer-
land for safekeeping in the wake of World War I.