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STATE JURISDICTION AND JURISDICTIONAL IMMUNITIES
In 2000, several Zimbabwe nationals filed a civil action in a New York federal court under the Torture Victim Protection Act1 seeking $68.5 million in compensatory and punitive damages against various defendants, including Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and Foreign Minister Stan Mudenge. The plaintiffs alleged that they or their deceased relatives had been subject to murder, torture, or other acts of violence under orders from President Mugabe as part of a widespread campaign to intimidate his political opponents. The alleged victims are associated with a Zimbabwean opposition party known as the Movement for Democratic Change, which has sought to end the twenty-year rule of President Mugabe.2
Service of process was made on President Mugabe and Foreign Minister Mudenge in September 1999 while they were visiting the United Nations. On February 23, 2001, the U.S. government filed a "suggestion of immunity" with the district court, stating that the two Zimbabwean officials had head-of-state immunity under customary international law, had diplomatic immunity under certain agreements with the United Nations, and had "personal inviolability"-and thus could not be served in any capacity. The submission provided, in part:
3. Under customary rules of international law recognized and applied in the United States, and pursuant to this Suggestion of Immunity, President Mugabe, as the head of a foreign state, is immune from the Court's jurisdiction in this case. See, e.g., First American Corp. v. Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al-Nahyan, 948 F.Supp. 1107, 1119 (D.D.C. 1996); Alicog v. Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, 860 F.Supp. 379, 382 (S.D. Tex. 1994), affd, 79 F.3d 1145 (5th Cir. 1996); Lafontant v. Aristide, 844 F.Supp. 128, 132 (E.D.N.Y. 1994). In addition, Foreign Minister Mudenge also is immune from the Court's jurisdiction in this case. See The Schooner Exchange v. McFaddon, 11 U.S. (7 Cranch) 116, 138 (1812) (Marshall, CJ.) (recognizing that, under customary international law, "the immunity which all civilized nations allow to foreign ministers" is coextensive with the immunity of the sovereign); Kim v. Kim Yong Shik, Civ. No. 12565 (Cir. Ct., 1st Cir., Hawaii 1963), cited at 58 Am. J. Int'l L. 186 (1964) (recognizing immunity of foreign minister) ....
4. The Supreme Court has mandated that the courts of the United States are bound by suggestions of...