FSIA, RICO, And New York Convention Developments All In One Month

First Tuesday Update is our monthly take on current issues in commercial disputes, international arbitration, and judgment enforcement. We interrupt our three-part series examining whether the English courts can issue a worldwide freezing order against a foreign state in support of efforts to enforce an arbitral award or foreign judgment to cover three significant updates.

First, the United States Supreme Court issued its decision in Turkiye Halk Bankasi A.S. v. United States, No. 21-1450, 598 U.S. __ (2023) (Halkbank), holding that the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) applies only in civil, not criminal, cases, rejecting Defendants' argument that language from Amerada Hess v. Argentine Republic, 488 U.S. 428, 439 (1989) that the FSIA is the "sole basis" for jurisdiction over foreign state actors. Second, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in Yegiazaryan v. Smagin and CMB Monaco v. Smagin, which will decide whether a RICO claim against a Russian