3 ms·

yet moments before we got this https://yro.slashdot.org/story/17/03/15/0521225/hacking-victim-cant-sue-foreign-government-for-hacking-him-on-us-soil-says-court

by gcb0 10y ago

yet moments before we got this https://yro.slashdot.org/story/17/03/15/0521225/hacking-victim-cant-sue-foreign-government-for-hacking-him-on-us-soil-says-court https://yro.slashdot.org/story/17/03/15/0521225/hacking-vict... > a court of appeals in Washington D.C. ruled that an American citizen can't sue the Ethiopian government for hacking into his computer and monitoring him with spyware. "The decision on Tuesday is a blow to anti-surveillance and digital rights activists who were hoping to establish an important precedent in a widely documented case of illegitimate government-sponsored hacking."

anigbrowl 10y ago
There's a general principle that individuals can't sue governments because otherwise the conduct of foreign relations by governments becomes impossible. Also, other countries are disinclined to pay attention to verdicts against themselves in US courts, and it would be embarrassing for us to have people win their cases and then have no way of enforcing the judgement. That could lead to courts ordering the seizure of foreign assets to pay compensation, which would undermine the Constitutional role of the Executive branch to conduct foreign relations. Thus, courts generally decline to hear those cases. Governments are held to have 'sovereign immunity' and indeed most countries offer no way to sue a foreign government in their own courts.
- igivanov 10y ago
  Perhaps in theory... http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Iran-News/Terror-victims-kin-have-no-right-to-sue-Iran-in-US-courts-Zarif-says-452664 http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Iran-News/Terror-victims-ki... http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-10-01/sept-11-widow-first-american-sue-saudi-arabia-terrorism-her-full-lawsuit http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-10-01/sept-11-widow-first... http://www.historycommons.org/context.jsp?item=complete_timeline_of_the_2003_invasion_of_iraq_2015#complete_timeline_of_the_2003_invasion_of_iraq_2015 http://www.historycommons.org/context.jsp?item=complete_time...

by gcb0 10y ago

anigbrowl 10y ago

There's a general principle that individuals can't sue governments because otherwise the conduct of foreign relations by governments becomes impossible. Also, other countries are disinclined to pay attention to verdicts against themselves in US courts, and it would be embarrassing for us to have people win their cases and then have no way of enforcing the judgement. That could lead to courts ordering the seizure of foreign assets to pay compensation, which would undermine the Constitutional role of the Executive branch to conduct foreign relations. Thus, courts generally decline to hear those cases. Governments are held to have 'sovereign immunity' and indeed most countries offer no way to sue a foreign government in their own courts.

igivanov 10y ago
Perhaps in theory... http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Iran-News/Terror-victims-kin-have-no-right-to-sue-Iran-in-US-courts-Zarif-says-452664 http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Iran-News/Terror-victims-ki... http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-10-01/sept-11-widow-first-american-sue-saudi-arabia-terrorism-her-full-lawsuit http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-10-01/sept-11-widow-first... http://www.historycommons.org/context.jsp?item=complete_timeline_of_the_2003_invasion_of_iraq_2015#complete_timeline_of_the_2003_invasion_of_iraq_2015 http://www.historycommons.org/context.jsp?item=complete_time...