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Extracted Text (OCR)
Cite as: 586 U.S. (2019) 15
BREYER, J., dissenting
a suit would lead to “disruptive interference” with the
organization’s functions, the waiver does not apply. Ibid.
Other organizations have attempted to solve the liabil-
ityimmunity problem by turning to multilateral, not
single-nation, solutions. The UN, for instance, has
agreed to “make provisions for appropriate modes of set-
tlement of ... [d]isputes arising out of contracts or other
disputes of a private law character.” Convention on Privi-
leges and Immunities of the United Nations, Art. VIII,
§29, 21 U.S. T. 1488, T. I. A.S. No. 6900. It generally
does so by agreeing to submit commercial disputes to
arbitration. See Restatement (Third) of Foreign Relations
Law of the United States §467, Reporters’ Note 7 (1987).
Other organizations, including the IFC, have set up alter-
native accountability schemes to resolve disputes that
might otherwise end up in court. See World Bank, Inspec-
tion Panel: About Us (describing World Bank’s three-
member “independent complaints mechanism” for those
“who believe that they have been ... adversely affected by
a World Bank-funded project”), https://inspectionpanel.org/
about-us/about-inspection-panel (as last visited Feb. 25,
2019); Compliance Advisor Ombudsman, How We Work:
CAO Dispute Resolution (describing IFC and Multi-
lateral Investment Guarantee Agency dispute-resolution
process, the main objective of which is to help resolve issues
raised about the “social and environmental impacts of
IFC/MIGA projects”), www.cao-ombudsman.org/howwework/
ombudsman.
These alternatives may sometimes prove inadequate.
And, if so, the Immunities Act itself offers a way for Amer-
ica’s Executive Branch to set aside an organization’s im-
munity and to allow a lawsuit to proceed in U.S. courts.
The Act grants to the President the authority to “with-
hold,” to “withdraw,” to “condition,” or to “limit” any of the
Act’s “immunities” in “light of the functions performed by
any such international organization.” 22 U.S. C. §288.
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