Cornell International Law JournalThe preeminent source for scholarship on foreign and international law

Sovereign Immunity & Covid-19: China’s Immunity Under the Fsia from Federal Covid-19 Lawsuits, Vol. 53

Ishan Shivakumar †

22 Apr 2021

Many states have filed lawsuits against the People’s Republic of China in U.S. Federal Courts for allowing coronavirus to spread and for the ensuing consequences. At present, international law and the American Sovereign
Immunity statute bar such lawsuits against China. Only an amendment to the federal statute that creates an exception for recovery against China for COVID-19 related harm can pierce the sovereign immunity enjoyed by
China.

Ishan Shivakumar is a student at the Faculty of Law, University of Oxford, where he serves as Associate Editor of the Oxford University Commonwealth Law Journal. He completed his LL.M. (Dean’s List) from UC Berkeley, School of Law, in 2020 and B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) from the National University of Juridical Sciences, India, in 2016.