USA – NEW YORK Trends and Developments Contributed by: Alex Loomis and Gregg Badichek, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP
ist organisations – was ultimately commercial in nature and took place in the United States. This opens the door to wide-ranging material-sup - port-of-terrorism charges against foreign states and instrumentalities. Attestor Master Value, discussed above, also developed the law of execution immunity. Assets that Argentina had pledged as security for a bond issuance were used for commercial activity, the court held, because Argentina had refinanced those bonds and used the collateral as an inducement for participating bondhold - ers. This makes it easier to enforce judgments against foreign states that issue securitised bonds, and raises the stakes of finding such collateral.
Finally, Bank Markazi, also discussed earlier, potentially opens the door for enforcement against foreign states and instrumentalities that have not been joined to proceedings. The Sec - ond Circuit held in that case that Iran’s central bank was entitled to sovereign immunity and thus could not be joined formally to the proceed - ings. But the court left open whether the judg - ment creditor could nonetheless seek turnover of the central bank’s assets by simply suing the garnishee (Clearstream). Although the court’s sovereign immunity ruling arguably expanded foreign states’ rights, the decision on the whole may leave foreign state assets more exposed.
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