Court Opinion

ID: 9472736
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 04:08:49.585651+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:43:06.455771
License: Public Domain

STARR, Circuit Judge,
with whom SCA-LIA, Circuit Judge, joins, dissenting:
In my view the act of state doctrine forecloses this action, and I would therefore affirm the District Court’s dismissal on that ground.1 The majority concludes otherwise only by its insistence that a completed expropriation provides the exclusive manner by which actions of the Honduran government would rise to the level of an “act of state,” an unsupportably narrow view of the substance and purpose of that doctrine. The majority’s cavalier treatment of the foreign policy implications of further litigation in this matter invites the very intrusion into foreign affairs and affront to a foreign government which the act of state doctrine was designed to prevent. I therefore dissent.
The act of state doctrine, first articulated in Underhill v. Hernandez, 168 U.S. 250, 252, 18 S.Ct. 83, 84, 42 L.Ed. 456 (1897), rests on the proposition that United States courts “will not sit in judgment on the acts of the government of another [country] done within its own territory.” The Supreme Court’s decision in Banco Nacional de Cuba v. Sabbatino, 376 U.S. 398, 428, 84 S.Ct. 923, 940, 11 L.Ed.2d 804 (1964), sets forth a useful description of the doctrine as particularly applicable to the present dispute:
[T]he Judicial Branch will not examine the validity of a taking of property within its own territory by a foreign sovereign government, extant and recognized by this country at the time of suit, in the absence of a treaty or other unambiguous agreement regarding controlling legal principles, even if the complaint alleges that the taking violates customary international law.
The act of state doctrine was developed to serve important considerations of separation of powers. The Sabbatino Court explained that the “ ‘constitutional’ underpinnings” of the doctrine *1567arise[ ] out of the basic relationships between branches of the government in a system of separation of powers. It concerns the competency of dissimilar institutions to make and implement particular kinds of decisions in the area of international relations. The doctrine ... expresses the strong sense of the Judicial Branch that its engagement in the task of passing on the validity of foreign acts of state may hinder rather than further this country’s pursuit of goals both for itself and for the community of nations as a whole in the international sphere.
Id. at 423, 84 S.Ct. at 938.
The majority’s principal step in avoiding these weighty considerations is to ignore the Honduran government’s official involvement in the construction and operation on plaintiffs’ land of the Regional Military Training Center (RMTC). As I will now seek to demonstrate, official Honduran involvement in the activities of which appellants complain is manifestly and indisputably present. First, the plaintiffs’ own filings2 clearly demonstrate Honduran involvement:
I and my men have observed military activities carried out almost every day in the Taya Crique and the Los Presos sections. Green Berets, and Honduran and Salvadoran soldiers enter and leave by car and on foot, loaded with military equipment.
*1568Declaration of Nestor Castro, Joint Appendix (J.A.) 92.
Almost daily during the past three weeks, I, my family and other workers have seen American soldiers (Green Berets), and Salvadoran and Honduran soldiers enter the section of Taya Crique, that is located on the other side of the highway, right across from my house. They enter in groups of various sizes, sometimes of up to 70 or 100 soldiers.
Declaration of Cesar Reyes, J.A. 94.
I have asked United States and Honduran Military Officials in charge of the Regional Military Training Center to Escort my workers into the fields ____
Third Supplemental Declaration of Temisto-cles Ramirez de Arellano, J.A. 116 (emphasis added).
There is no contention that these Honduran troops are acting ultra vires or marauding onto plaintiffs’ land without sanction from responsible Honduran officials. But we need not engage in idle speculation as to whether the presence of Honduran troops on this part of Honduran soil is an act of the sovereign. For the Government of Honduras has spoken clearly in this respect at the highest levels of its Executive and Legislative branches, as reflected in two official documents.
The first is a decree of the Honduran National Congress, adopted on June 23, 1983. This decree, reprinted in Appellees’ Brief at a-3, a-1 (English translation), states that “the Republic of Honduras did establish a Regional Center for military training, located in the jurisdiction of the Municipality of Trujillo, Department of Co-Ion” with the goal of “the overall improvement of the Honduran Armed Forces and the technical training of military elements, both national as well as natives of friendly countries.” As a result of the need for “the technical services of foreign military instructors” in the operation of the installation, the National Congress “authorize[d] the admission [into Honduras] of military instructors and students, coming from friendly countries.” The Assembly’s resolution thus plainly and unmistakably indicates that the RMTC is extant; that the RMTC was established not by mutinous troops but by “the Republic of Honduras”; and that the Center is carrying out functions that are indisputably sovereign in nature — the training and improvement of the Honduran Armed Forces and those of other friendly countries. Now it is true that this Resolution does not speak the language of real estate lawyers and property surveyors. No metes and bounds are identified. In a flight of utter fancy, it might be argued that the dotting of “i’s” and crossing of “t’s” reminiscent of old-fashioned code pleading requires us to consider the theoretical possibility that the Center of which plaintiffs complain is somehow at the wrong location — that the Honduran government’s official sanctioning of the Center does not indisputably run to the appellants’ land.
But surely that extraordinary requirement is fully satisfied, even to the Doubting Thomases seized only of a copy of the Federal Rules, by the second official document of the Honduran government. That document is a decree of the president of Honduras, issued November 4, 1983.3 Re*1569printed in Appellees’ Brief at c-2, c-5 (English translation). This decree by its terms formally commenced the expropriation of plaintiffs’ land, identified by metes and bounds to eliminate any doubt whatever, “on which the [Regional Military Training Center] was established and is now operating.” The decree explains in no uncertain terms the Honduran national interest in and control over that facility:
The above-mentioned Regional Military Training Center ... an activity of the Armed Forces of Honduras, performs the obvious, very important, and direct function of providing national security for the State, inasmuch as its purpose is to perform the duty of the Armed Forces to defend the Republic’s territorial integrity and sovereignty in order to maintain peace.
These official documents, to put it as gently as possible, evidence formal acts taken by the Honduran government which, standing alone, constitute an act of state.4 What is more, if official acts of the Legislative and Executive powers of Honduras are blithely to be ignored, the physical occupation of plaintiffs’ property also constitutes an act of state on the facts presented here.5 The acts of state plainly evident here are grounded in the “primeval interest” of a sovereign state to “resolv[e] all disputes over use or right to use of real property within its own domain.” Asociacion de Reclamantes v. United Mexican States, 735 F.2d 1517, 1521 (D.C.Cir.1984). Surely the occupation of land by a sovereign government within its own territory for military purposes should satisfy the most ardent skeptic as falling within the ambit of the act of state doctrine.
The majority, however, after “[interpreting the resolutions in light of the plaintiffs’ set of facts” concludes that it cannot say “without qualification that the Honduran government has exercised an act of state which could bar relief.” Maj.Op. at 1534. The key to the majority’s devaluation of these documents is apparently that the official actions to date of the Honduran government do not amount to a completed expropriation of or other passage of title to the disputed property. Id. at 1535-1536. Thus, “[o]n the basis of the plaintiffs’ facts and the two resolutions submitted to this court,” the majority
cannot say that Honduras has expropriated or otherwise asserted a claim of *1570ownership to the plaintiffs’ property. A. determination of whether the Honduran government, as a factual matter, has acted to take the plaintiffs’ property must be made in the first instance by the district court on the basis of evidence submitted by the parties. Dismissal of the plaintiffs’ complaint on the ground that the act of state defense bars relief cannot be justified on the record at this time.
Id. at 1536 (emphasis added) (footnote omitted).
This analysis, with all respect, misses the mark. The majority, it seems to me, has conveniently confused the concept of a “taking” of property with the formal expropriation procedures used to compensate the property owner and to effect a formal transfer of title to the state. But that will not do. Not a single fact or scrap of information beyond that alleged in the plaintiffs’ own complaint and supporting declarations and those contained in the Honduran governmental decrees is necessary to establish the fact of a “taking” by the Honduran government. It is the question whether a taking has occurred, rather than whether the expropriation process has been completed, which is relevant to a proper analysis under the act of state doctrine.
The majority's attempt to deal with this analysis, Maj. Op. at 1535 n. 154, is, in a word, misleading. Section 43 of the Restatement (Second), supra, on which the majority relies, deals only with actions of a foreign state "with respect to a thing located, or an interest localized, outside of its territory.” It thus has no applicability whatever to this case.
That there is nothing talismanic about formal or informal procedures employed by a sovereign government to seize property within its boundaries is made clear by the definition of “taking” set forth in the Restatement (Second) of Foreign Relations Law (1965):
Conduct attributable to a state that is intended to, and does, effectively deprive an alien of substantially all the benefit of his interest in property, constitutes a taking of the property, within the meaning of § 185 [of the Restatement (Second), which defines “wrongful” takings of alien property], even though the state does not deprive him of his entire legal interest in the property.
Id. § 192 (emphasis added).6
Applying the common-sense definition of “taking” which has developed in international law, it is abundantly clear that plaintiffs have alleged facts, which we must accept as true at this stage of the litigation, which describe a taking of their property. It is equally clear that this taking was an act of state by the Honduran government.7
*1571As to the first point, the only reasonable reading of plaintiffs’ complaint is that it alleges a taking. The gravamen of the complaint is that the United States defendants have “deprive[d] plaintiffs of their right to enjoy and use their property.” Complaint H10, J.A. 8. Count I of the complaint seeks relief from the “[sjeizure, [destruction and [deprivation of [plaintiffs’ [u]se and [e]njoyment of [property,” and Count II similarly speaks to the allegedly wrongful “deprivation] ... of the use and enjoyment of [the] property.” Complaint UH 15-17, J.A. 10-11. This, then, quite plainly sounds in taking.
Once a taking of foreign property has been alleged, the issue becomes, of course, whether a taking in fact occurred and, if so, what entity effected the taking. In this case, the majority skirts this inquiry by focusing exclusively on the issue whether a formal expropriation proceeding has been completed. But this exercise in formalism is unwarranted. In its haste to blend “expropriation” with “taking,” the majority dismisses the two Honduran governmental decrees as mere “pieces of paper,” Maj.Op. at 1533, and ignores the critical passage in the Honduran presidential decree, reprinted in Appellees’ Brief at c-2, c-5 (English translation), including the unequivocal statement that the RMTC is “an activity of the Armed Forces of Honduras.” Ap-pellees’ Brief at c-7 (emphasis added).
It is hard to conceive of another manner in which the Honduran government could have more clearly asserted that the operation of the RMTC constitutes a sovereign act of that government, or indicated its estimation of the RMTC’s importance to that nation’s sovereign interests. I am simply at a loss to understand how the majority, with these documents properly before them, can conclude that “[dismissal of the plaintiffs’ complaint ... cannot be justified on the record at this time.” Maj.Op. at 1536.
It is no answer to say that plaintiffs have named only the United States officials as defendants, and thus have not brought Honduran actions into the line of litigation. Such a reading of the complaint would require the court to ignore the inescapable inference that the Honduran government as sovereign, must, at a minimum, have acquiesced in the taking of plaintiffs’ property. But we are not limited to the inexorable inferences from plaintiffs’ complaint and declarations, for we have the two decrees of the Honduran government to establish official and active Honduran involvement in the creation and operation of the RMTC.
Regardless of the extent of United States participation in the RMTC,8 the as*1572sertion by Honduras’ president as to Honduran control of the RMTC, and the commencement of formal expropriation proceedings, establish for me beyond cavil that Honduran acts of state have resulted in the taking of the disputed property, and that United States courts are in no position to adjudicate the propriety of this taking, The majority’s discussion of the fact that at this stage of the expropriation process compensation has not yet been paid or title passed is, in a word, irrelevant to the determination of whether an act of state has occurred.
Because the majority does not view these uneontroverted facts as justifying invocation of the act of state doctrine, it purports to “take no view on the weight or substance of the plaintiffs’ factual case as it might be developed.” Maj.Op. at 1538. Nonetheless, the majority, committed to the idea that the current record will not support invocation of the act of state doctrine, is drawn inexorably to the position that there is a need for further inquiry into the “extent” of Honduran participation in the taking and continued occupation of plaintiffs’ land. Thus, the majority states that Honduran troops may not now be “participating in the training activity at all, let alone to such an extent that the Honduran government could be said to have seized the ranch." Id. (emphasis added),
Assuming that the majority does not wish to suggest that the United States simply invaded Honduras, its invitation to the parties to plumb the timing of and relative responsibilities for the establishment of the RMTC is a flagrant affront to the sovereignty of Honduras. Attempts by the parties to find “facts” with respect to these “issues” would, in effect, question Honduran autonomy and raise the specter of a United States court declaring the government of an allied nation so subject to U.S. “manipulation” as to be incapable of independent sovereign acts worthy of deference under the act of state doctrine. The unavoidable tenor of such an argument is suggested by appellants’ reference to the impropriety of U.S. officials “manipulating foreign officials abroad,” Appellants’ Reply Brief at 18, and their reference to an article in the New York Times which quoted an unnamed Honduran official’s criticism of “ ‘great’ pressure from American officials” in constructing the RMTC. Id. at 8 n. 2. 1 Thus, the majority’s speculation, Maj.Op. at 4542, that [t]he entire suit could conceivaW be resolved with no reference to Honduran governmental involvement” is no more than wishful thinking,
Judicial consideration of these arguments obviously would threaten embarrassment to the United States and its allies in a volatile and strategically important area of this hemisphere. This danger is compounded by the irony that the majority applies an unprecedentedly narrow reading of the act of state doctrine — a doctrine which, as noted above, grew up around the nationalization of U.S. assets by unfriendly foreign governments — to bring into question the sovereignty of a friendly foreign state. Surely the separation of powers concerns informing the doctrine counsel at least equal consideration of the acts of friendly nations, where the foreign policy aims of the United States are, if anything^ put at greater risk by judicial meddling in international affairs.
The majority goes to some lengths, Maj.Op. at 1539-1543, to suggest that “the Second Hickenlooper Amendment, accepted tenets of international law, treaties between the United States and Honduras, or other legal obstacles” could “bar application of the act of state doctrine in this *1573ease.” Id. at 1543. These speculations seem to me completely unfounded.
The first perceived “legal obstacle” addressed by the majority is the so-called First Hickenlooper Amendment. This statute is wholly inapposite here. Indeed, the inclusion of this argument in the majority opinion is nothing short of astonishing. In reaching out for any and every conceivable obstacle to the application of the act of state doctrine, the majority opines that an “expropriation” by Honduran authorities without compensation will result in a legal requirement under the strictures of the First Hickenlooper Amendment that the President immediately cut off foreign assistance to Honduras. In the words of one of the great cases of yesteryear, this proposition is utterly “too extravagant to be maintained.” It surely cannot seriously be argued that a cut-off of financial assistance is required where, as here, the president of a sovereign country closely allied to the United States in a difficult and sensitive region of the world has solemnly signed a formal decree expressly providing that a formal expropriation pursuant to procedures provided by Honduran law is to go forward. This is scarcely a Cuba-like retaliatory seizure of American assets. And surely the majority does not mean to suggest that in the splendid isolation of the United States Courthouse we perceive south of our borders a situation which would require a cut-off of U.S. financial assistance unless we allow this litigation to proceed. Even to suggest such a proposition eloquently manifests a single-minded willingness to tread with abandon in the most delicate areas of foreign relations.9 Finally, one must recognize that the majority’s analysis, if adopted, would have no effect whatever on the propriety of recognizing the act of state doctrine in this case.
Turning to the Second Hickenlooper Amendment, the only courts which have addressed the question have decided that it applies only to cases in which a party asserts that “specific property located in the United States” was the intended target of a confiscation by a foreign state in violation of international law. Restatement (Revised), supra, § 429. This interpretation of the statute was first advanced by the Second Circuit in Banco Nacional de Cuba v. First National City Bank, 431 F.2d 394, 399-402 (2d Cir.1970). The subsequent Supreme Court decision in First National City Bank, supra, 406 U.S. 759, 92 S.Ct. 1808, 32 L.Ed.2d 466 (1972), reversed the appellate court on other grounds; none of the four opinions addressed the construction of the Hickenlooper Amendment. As the Restatement (Revised) notes:
Since disagreement by the Supreme Court with the Court of Appeals on interpretation of the [Hickenlooper] [Amendment would have made all of the other points irrelevant, it seems that the Supreme Court agreed with the Court of Appeals’ interpretation ... that only property directly related to an expropriation and found in the United States can bring the second Hickenlooper Amendment into play, whether by way of claim or counterclaim.
Id. § 429 Reporters’ Note 4 (emphasis added). The Second Circuit has recently had occasion to stand by its earlier interpretation of the Second Hickenlooper Amendment. Banco Nacional de Cuba v. Chase Manhattan Bank, supra, 658 F.2d at 882 n. 10. The Fifth Circuit adopted this reading of the statute in Compañía de Gas de *1574Nuevo Laredo, S.A. v. Entex, 686 F.2d 322, 327 (5th Cir.1982), cert. denied, 460 U.S. 1041, 103 S.Ct. 1435, 75 L.Ed.2d 794 (1983). Since the disputed property in this case is real property situated quite permanently in Honduras, the Second Hickenlooper Amendment can have no application here.
The majority’s invocation of the so-called “treaty exception” to Sabbatino, as well as the possibility of a violation of international law, reduces in effect to a single concern. This is because the requirements of the 1928 Treaty of Friendship between the United States and Honduras, and the standards under international law, are substantially the same. Under the treaty, Honduras is required to render “just compensation” upon the expropriation of property owned by U.S. nationals; under U.S. recognized principles of international law, “an alien whose property is expropriated is entitled to ‘prompt, adequate and effective’ compensation.” Chase Manhattan Bank, supra, 658 F.2d at 888 (discussing the origin of the so-called “Hull Doctrine”). See also Restatement (Second), supra, § 185 Reporters’ Note 1.
In light of the uncontroverted fact that the Honduran government has taken the first steps, under Honduran law, toward expropriation of and compensation for the disputed property, there is at this time no basis for an argument that the Honduran government is in violation either of its treaty obligations or accepted tenets of the international law of expropriation. I do not accept the majority’s reading of this dissent as precluding future legal action by plaintiffs should the compensation paid them by the Honduran government run’ afoul of that government’s treaty obligations. Without deciding the merits of this hypothetical case, I find it quite easy to say that this as yet unripe claim would not be precluded if our decision as to declaratory and injunctive relief were to come out against the plaintiffs.
The majority’s imagined barriers to the recognition of the Honduran acts of state are thus without substance. This court can and should recognize these sovereign acts and dismiss this lawsuit.
The great tragedy of the majority’s opinion is that it takes no note of the very real dangers to Ú.S. foreign policy posed by this court’s decision. I respectfully but emphatically dissent.

. I also concur in Judge Scalia’s careful analysis of the insurmountable obstacles to the plaintiffs’ suit posed by the Tucker Act, principles of shareholder standing, and well-settled standards of equitable relief.

. This case comes to us from the District Court's order granting defendants’ motion to dismiss pursuant to Ff.d.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6). The procedural posture of the case, however, does not restrict this court to consideration of only those facts alleged in the pleadings filed in the District Court. This is because defendants’ motion, styled in the alternative as one for dismissal or summary judgment, was converted into a motion for summary judgment by the actions of the parties and the District Court. Specifically, the parties’ filing of materials in addition to the pleadings, and the District Court’s decision to accept and consider the proffered materials, worked this conversion under Rule 12(b)(6), according to well-established principles. Broo-kens v. United States, 627 F.2d 494, 499 (D.C.Cir. 1980); Irons v. Schuyler, 465 F.2d 608, 613 (D.C. Cir.1972); Gager v. “Bob Seidel”, 300 F.2d 727, 731 (D.C.Cir. 1962). The effect of this conversion is that, on appeal, this court may treat the matter as one involving a grant of summary judgment, regardless of the characterization by the District Court of its disposition of the matter, and may proceed to consider extra-pleading materials in determining whether summary judgment was appropriate. Id. I have, therefore, canvassed ”[t]he record as a whole," Gager, supra, 300 F.2d at 731, in determining that no genuine issue of material fact exists as to the applicability of the act of state doctrine to this case, and that the District Court’s dismissal should be affirmed.
The majority’s position, Maj. Op. at 1536-1538, that the procedural posture of the case precludes invocation of the act of state doctrine is, in my view, a classic red herring. This argument begins with the majority bemoaning the fact that the doctrine "was not raised by any of the parties before the district court" and claiming that unfairness would be visited on plaintiffs by any consideration, at this stage, of Honduran acts of state. Second, the majority argues that the absence of "factual development” before the District Court disables this court from ”find[ing] the facts necessary to settle the controversy.” Id. at 1536.
Neither branch of this argument will wash. As to the "procedural unfairness” claim, it is inconceivable that, given the location of the property at issue and the presence of Honduran troops, plaintiffs have not known from the outset that the act of state doctrine presents a serious barrier to their lawsuit. Indeed, the consummate skill with which their complaint was drawn, artfully avoiding the role of the Honduran government, strongly evidences plaintiffs’ clear understanding of this issue. Further, the original panel ordered the briefing of this issue, and plaintiffs have since responded both before the panel and the entire court en banc. Plaintiffs have clearly not been “ ’tak[en] ... by surprise,’ ’’ Maj. Op. at 1537 (quoting Advisory Committee note to Rule 12), with respect to the importance of the act of state doctrine. For the majority now to say that consideration of the act of state here would constitute a ”[r]ush[ ] to judgment" "depriving] the plaintiff of a meaningful opportunity to present its case," Maj. Op. at 1538, verges on the whimsical. More fundamentally, for reasons discussed infra at 1569-1572, I can imagine no "factual development” of this case by the plaintiffs which could transform the physical occupation of the land, and the statements of the Honduran government’s intention formally to expropriate that land, into something less than an act of state. That is, the majority’s refusal to affirm dismissal of this case merely allows plaintiffs to go forward with their futile attempts to minimize and otherwise discredit the Honduran government’s pivotal role in the creation of the RMTC.

. "[J]udicial notice of a document evidencing an act of state” is a procedure sanctioned by the Restatement (Revised) oe Foreign Relations Law § 428 comment g ("Form and proof of an act of state”) (Tent. Draft No. 4, 1983). It is clear that this court may take judicial notice for the first time of the contents of the Honduran government documents, as translated by the U.S. Department of State. See 21 C. Wright & K. Graham, Federal Practice and Procedure § 5110 at 527 (1977) ("The appellate court may, of course, take judicial notice on its own motion.”). Accord, Green v. Warden, U.S. Penitentiary, 699 F.2d 364, 369 (7th Cir.), cert, denied, 461 U.S. 960, 103 S.Ct. 2436, 77 L.Ed.2d 1321 (1983); State Fair of Texas v. U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, 650 F.2d 1324, 1328 (5th Cir.), vacated as moot, 454 U.S. 1026, 102 S.Ct. 560, 70 L.Ed.2d 470 (1981); Bryant v. Carleson, 444 F.2d 353, 357 (9th Cir.), cert, denied, 404 U.S. 967, 92 S.Ct. 344, 30 L.Ed.2d 287 (1971).
Under the rule that a court may consider "matters of general public record” in disposing of a motion to dismiss, judicial notice of this document is proper even if my analysis of the procedural posture of this case, supra note 2, is rejected. Phillips v. Bureau of Prisons, 591 F.2d 966, 969 (D.C.Cir.1979). See also District of *1569Columbia v. Moxley, 471 F.Supp. 777, 779 (D.D. C.1979). The State Department translation of the decree of the president of Honduras merits treatment as a matter of public record.

. In Alfred Dunhill of London, Inc. v. Cuba, 425 U.S. 682, 695, 96 S.Ct. 1854, 1861, 48 L.Ed.2d 301 (1976), the Supreme Court specifically mentioned "statute[s], decree[s], order[s], or resolution[s]” of a sovereign as establishing an act of state. (In Dunhill, counsel for Cuba failed to offer any such evidence that "Cuba had repudiated its obligations in general or any class thereof or that it had as a sovereign matter determined to confiscate" the contested sums. Id.) Accord, Restatement (Revised), supra note 3, § 428 Reporters’ Note 3 ("Act of state defined").

. See Restatement (Revised), supra note 3, § 428 comment g (act of state doctrine "possibly [applicable] to physical acts such as occupation of an estate by the state's armed forces in application of state policy"). The occupation in this case, in conjunction with the commencement of formal expropriation proceedings, clearly rises to the level of a sovereign act.
A governmental “taking” without prior formalities (or compensation) has a clear analogue in United States law. See Kirby Forest Indus., Inc. v. United States, — U.S. —, —, 104 S.Ct. 2187, 2191, 81 L.Ed.2d 1 (1984):
[T]he United States is capable of acquiring privately owned land summarily, by physically entering into possession and ousting the owner. In such a case, the owner has a right to bring an "inverse condemnation" suit to recover the value of the land on the date of the intrusion by the Government.
(Citations omitted).
It surely cannot seriously be maintained that Mr. Ramirez disputes the official involvement of Honduran governmental authorities. In addition to the declarations discussed previously in the text, appellants candidly admitted such Honduran involvement in their supplemental brief filed in this court on October 11, 1983. Here is what appellants themselves say on the subject:
Defendants ... are currently involved in operating and expanding the RMTC in collaboration with the Honduran Armed Forces.
Reprinted in Appellants’ Brief En Banc, Appendix B, at 4 (emphasis added). See also id. at 8, n. 2: "plaintiffs’ view [is] that the RMTC is primarily an activity of the United States, not Honduras." (Emphasis added.)

. Tentative Draft No. 3 of the Restatement (Revised) of Foreign Relations Law (1982) similarly adopts a functional analysis of "takings” of alien property, rather than focusing on the formalities followed by the foreign government. See id. §§ 711-712.

. The case law makes clear that a taking of property, including a "wrongful taking,” constitutes an act of state. Indeed, the development of the doctrine from Sabbatino to the present day has largely been the result of litigation over Cuban nationalizations of alien property for which no compensation was ever paid. The nationalization decree at issue in Sabbatino contained provisions for compensation which were described by the Second Circuit as "illusory” and “little more than a travesty." Banco Na-cional de Cuba v. Sabbatino, 307 F.2d 845, 862 (2d Cir.1962). The seizure of foreign banking assets, which eventually led to the Supreme Court’s decision in First National City Bank v. Banco Nacional de Cuba, 406 U.S. 759, 92 S.Ct. 1808, 32 L.Ed.2d 466 (1972), contained compensation procedures which the federal district court deemed "fictitious.” 270 F.Supp. 1004, 1010 (S.D.N.Y.1967). Accord, Banco Nacional de Cuba v. Chase Manhattan Bank, 658 F.2d 875, 878 (2d Cir.1981) (parties to related litigation stipulated that no compensatory payments were ever made), rev'd on other grounds sub nom. First National City Bank v. Banco Para El Comercio Exterior de Cuba, 462 U.S. 611, 103 S.Ct. 2591, 77 L.Ed.2d 46 (1983). Finally, the seizure of cigar manufacturing assets which led to the decision in Dunhill, supra, was described by the district court in language directly relevant to the case at bar:
The [seizures], in practical effect, were complete confiscations. The owners were ousted without their consent from all properties and excluded from any participation in the businesses. Their rights to any receipts or profits were eliminated and no compensation was provided.
Menendez v. Faber, Coe & Gregg, Inc., 345 F.Supp. 527, 532 (S.D.N.Y.1972).

. The cases cited by the majority for the proposition that the United States not be allowed to use the doctrine to shield improper collaboration with foreign governments, Maj. Op. at 1542-1543 nn. 183-85, do not contain relevant discussions of the act of state doctrine and are in any event distinguishable on several grounds.
The only cases cited by the majority which addressed improper acts by United States officials abroad in conjunction with foreign officials are Berlin Democratic Club v. Rumsfeld, 410 F.Supp. 144 (D.D.C.1976), and United States v. Hensel, 699 F.2d 18 (1st Cir.1983). In relevant part, Berlin Democratic Club involved electronic surveillance of United States citizens in West Germany by agents of the West German government; Hensel involved the search of a marijuana-laden boat by Canadian policemen. The actions of the foreign agents in both cases were intertwined with actions of United States agents to the extent that the so-called "joint venture” doctrine was implicated. This doctrine has been invoked in the past to challenge illegal searches and other violations of civil liberties by foreign officials, acting on the requests of United States officials. Before explaining why the doctrine seems to me inapplicable to the present action, I note that the decisions relied on by the majority do not represent the breaking of any new ground in the "joint venture” doctrine directly applicable to the present case.
It is also noteworthy that neither Berlin Democratic Club nor Hensel contain any analysis of the act of state doctrine. This seems to me consistent with the different factual situations presented by the typical “joint venture” case — an illegal search or other infringement of civil liberties — and the facts of the Honduran seizure of plaintiffs’ ranch. In the first place, this case clearly involves foreign relations considerations of a vastly more important dimension than did the cases cited by the majority. Secondly, Honduras’ seizure of land within its borders, even if, as the majority argues, it is beneficially owned by an American citizen, is an act specifically *1572permitted under international law, provided reasonable compensation procedures are followed. Similarly, if this seizure had been committed within the United States by agents of the United States government, it is clear, abstracting from the standing questions ably discussed by Judge Scalia, that plaintiffs would be entitled to bring an inverse condemnation action, but no more. In other words, the fact that this action deals with rights to land in a foreign country, seized by that country's government, rather than with the protection of core civil liberties implicated in the cases cited by the majority, renders the "joint venture” analysis urged by the majority singularly inapplicable,

. In its parade of horribles the majority also overlooks the President’s authority to waive application of the First Hickenlooper Amendment's sanctions. See 22 U.S.C. § 2370(e)(1) (1982).
The majority is likewise off base in arguing that the expropriation decree issued by Honduras’ Chief Executive is irrelevant to the issue of legality vel non under the First Hickenlooper Amendment. To the contrary, the very act of issuing the decree evidences an act of state solemnly undertaken by the Honduran government and at the same time the undisputed terms of that decree evidence that government’s undertaking the appropriate steps to effect compensation. It is the taking of such steps aimed at speedy compensation that is required under the express terms of the First Hickenlooper Am-emdment. 22 U.S.C. § 2370(e)(1). See also the discussion infra at p. 1512. The majority errs in suggesting otherwise.