Budha Ismail Jam, Petitioners v. International Finance Corporation

Summary

The Court held that the International Organizations Immunities Act’s “same immunity” language refers to the current, restrictive foreign sovereign immunity regime embodied in the FSIA, not the virtually absolute immunity of 1945. Accordingly, the International Finance Corporation is not absolutely immune from suit. Justice Breyer dissented, arguing that the statute should be read statically to preserve the absolute immunity foreign governments enjoyed when the IOIA was enacted.