Hickenlooper Amendment

Summary of Hickenlooper Amendment

A provision of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1964 sponsored by Senator Burke Hickenlooper to permit U.S. courts jurisdiction over litigation arising from expropriations of U.S. property abroad by foreign governments. Also known as the Rule of Law Amendment, or the Sabbatino Amendment after the famous case of Banco Nacional de Cuba v. Sabbatino, the Hickenlooper Amendment was largely directed at Cuban confiscations of U.S. property. Enacted on October 7, 1964, as Section 301(d)(4) of the act, it provided: (1) that no foreign state might assert immunity from U.S. courts on the basis of the Act Of State Doctrine (read this and related legal terms for further details) when it acted contrary to international law, in particular, when it averted “the principles of compensation”; (2) that the president of the United States might permit Federal courts to invoke Act of State immunities when U.S. foreign policy interests so required; and (3) that the act applied to cases arising after January 1, 1959, and for which litigation was begun by January 1, 1966.

The amendment was reenacted and made permanent, with minor modification, by the Foreign Assistance Act of 1965.

(Main Author: William J. Miller)

Hickenlooper Amendment

Embracing mainstream international law, this section on hickenlooper amendment explores the context, history and effect of the area of the law covered here.

Resources

Further Reading

• The entry “hickenlooper amendment” in the Parry and Grant Encyclopaedic Dictionary of International Law (currently, the Encyclopaedic Dictionary of International Law, 2009), Oxford University Press