Academic

Questions for Prof. Bush

By University of Houston Law Center

I wasn’t aware of the SD Texas case – was it brought by an affected party, or by the government? Does it raise the FSIA issue the of commercial activities exception to sovereign immunity? 

It could be an important precedent in this regard, since the 1979 opinion on this issue was issued by a District Court.

Repeal of the Act of State Doctrine has been suggested by a number of writers, but I am not aware that Congress has ever seriously considered passing a law to do away with the doctrine. Such a law would be challenged as unconstitutional, since many experts believe that the Act of State doctrine has constitutional underpinnings in separation of powers.

The oil and gas industries are very strange, volatile industries, and for governments that are overly dependent on oil production as a major source of their foreign exchange, controlling production appears a logical economic policy. As far as the U.S. suing OPEC, I would rather see a multilateral solution, rather than a U.S. unilateral one – maybe replace OPEC with an “OPEIC” (Organization of Petroleum Exporting and Importation Countries), to try to bring some balance to supply and demand. Oops, there I go – forgetting that the market is supposed to do that. But the oil market is so volatile.

I do sympathize with the developing country members of OPEC.

Full post as published by University of Houston Law Center Faculty Blog on July 07, 2008 (boomark / email).