Opinion ID: 1037860
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Implied Waiver Exception

Text: The implied waiver exception provides that: [a] foreign state shall not be immune from the jurisdiction of courts of the United States or of the States in any case . . . in which the foreign state has waived its immunity either explicitly or by implication, notwithstanding any withdrawal of the waiver which the foreign state may purport to effect except in accordance with the terms of the waiver . . . . 28 U.S.C. § 1605(a)(1). Although this exception “must be construed narrowly,” Cabiri v. Gov’t of Republic of Ghana, 165 F.3d 193, 201 (2d Cir. 1999), we agree with the District Court, Blue Ridge Invs., 902 F. Supp. 2d at 374-74, that our decision in Seetransport Wiking Trader Schiffarhtsgesellschaft MBH & Co., Kommanditgesellschaft v. Navimpex Centrala Navala, 989 F.2d 572 (2d Cir. 1993), compels the conclusion that Argentina waived its sovereign immunity by becoming a party to the ICSID Convention.20 20 We are mindful that courts, including our own, have unintentionally used certain terms of art of public international law interchangeably, but we take this opportunity to recall that, “[u]nder general principles of treaty law, a State’s signing of a treaty serves only to authenticate its text; it does not establish the signatory’s consent to be bound. A State only becomes bound by―that is, becomes a party to―a treaty when it ratifies the treaty.” Flores v. S. Peru Copper Corp., 414 F.3d 233, 256 (2d Cir. 2003) (emphasis in original) (internal quotation marks, citation, and alteration marks omitted). As a general matter, “[t]he United States becomes a ‘party’ to a treaty―that is, becomes contractually bound to obey its terms―only when, upon concurrence of ‘two thirds of the Senators present,’ U.S. Const. art. II, § 2, cl. 2, the President 16 In Seetransport, we held that by becoming a party to the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Arbitral Awards (“CFREAA”), a foreign sovereign implicitly waived its immunity because the terms of the CFREAA provided, inter alia, that “‘[e]ach Contracting State shall recognize arbitral awards as binding and enforce them in accordance with the rules of procedure of the territory where the award is relied upon . . . .’” 989 F.2d at 578 (quoting 9 U.S.C. § 201). In other words, we held that “when a country becomes a [Contracting State] to the [CFREAA], by the very provisions of the [CFREAA], the [Contracting] State must have contemplated enforcement actions in other [Contracting] States.” Id. The provisions of the ICSID Convention require us to reach the same conclusion here. As the District Court noted, “[p]ursuant to Article 54 of the Convention, [e]ach Contracting State shall recognize an award rendered pursuant to th[e] Convention as binding and enforce the pecuniary obligations imposed by that award within its territories as if it were a final judgment of a court in that State.” Blue Ridge Invs., 902 F. Supp. 2d at 374 (internal quotation marks omitted). In light of the enforcement mechanism provided by the ICSID Convention, we agree with the District Court that Argentina “must have contemplated enforcement actions in other [Contracting] [S]tates,” including the United States. Seetransport, 989 F.2d at 578.21 ratifies the treaty.” Id. at 256 n.32 (emphasis supplied). It is only upon ratification that the United States, or any other country, becomes bound by a treaty―that is, becomes a “contracting state.” Argentina has been a party to the ICSID Convention since 1994. The United States has been a party to the ICSID Convention since 1966. See List of Contracting States and Other Signatories to the Convention, Int’l Ctr. for the Settlement of Inv. Disputes, available at https://icsid.worldbank.org/ICSID/FrontServlet?requestType= ICSIDDocRH&actionVal=ContractingStates&ReqFrom=Main. 21 In reaching this conclusion, we note that the only other court in this Circuit to have considered this issue reached the same conclusion. See Liberian E. Timber Corp. v. Gov’t of Republic of Liberia, 650 F. Supp. 73, 76 (S.D.N.Y. 1986), aff’d without opinion, 854 F.2d 1314 (2d Cir. 1987) (“Liberia, as a [party] to the [ICSID] Convention, waived its sovereign immunity in the United States with respect to the enforcement of any arbitration award entered pursuant to the Convention.”). 17