House Adopts The Foreign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional Immunity Clarification Act
The Foreign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional Immunity Clarification Act passed the House of Representatives late this afternoon. H.R. 889, which received broad bipartisan support by legislators in Congress, now goes to the Senate.
The committee report accompanying the legislation explained that “a provision in the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) discourages foreign governments from lending government-owned artwork and objects of cultural significance to U.S. museums and educational institutions for temporary exhibition or display. Foreign governments are discouraged from such lending by the possibility that it will open them up to litigation in U.S. courts for which they would otherwise be immune. This legislation fixes this problem by making a narrowly tailored change to FSIA.”
The committee report accompanying the legislation explained that “a provision in the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) discourages foreign governments from lending government-owned artwork and objects of cultural significance to U.S. museums and educational institutions for temporary exhibition or display. Foreign governments are discouraged from such lending by the possibility that it will open them up to litigation in U.S. courts for which they would otherwise be immune. This legislation fixes this problem by making a narrowly tailored change to FSIA.”
The House adopted similar versions of the bill in the past, most recently in May 2014, but the bills failed to become law.
The CHL blog penned an argument in favor of this legislation in 2012.
The video below, courtesy of C-Span and clipped by CHL, shows today’s floor debate.
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