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NOPEC Immunity Issue Resurfaces
OPEC nations take note! A July 6, 2007, Wall Street Journal article, Why Bid to Allow Lawsuits Against OPEC May Fly, describes a bill currently making its way through Congress that would permit OPEC member nations to be sued under U.S. antitrust laws, thus stripping them of the immunity afforded by the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act.
The bill was drafted by Sen. Herbert H. Kohl (D-Wis.) in 2000 and the U.S. House of Representatives approved it in May 2007. It is apparently now receiving significant backing in the U.S. Senate as well. Under the bill, being called NOPEC, OPEC members no longer would enjoy sovereign immunity in price-fixing suits by the U.S. Department of Justice; see Monroe Leigh, International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers v. OPEC, 76 Am. J. Int'l Law 160 (1982); 649 F.2d 1354 (9th Cir. 1981); Andrew Udin, Slaying Goliath: The Extraterritorial Application of U.S. Antitrust Law to OPEC, 50 Am.U.L.R. 1321 (2001).
A burning question, then, is whether President Bush would veto the bill, considering the potential foreign relations problems, as well the potential for U.S. oil supplies to be disrupted or cut off. A similar bill, S. 555, went nowhere in 2005. -- Laina Wilk, Berliner, Corcoran & Rowe, LLP, Washington, DC.
Fri, / / Embassy Law Link
