July 14, 2016 - Issue: Vol. 162, No. 114 — Daily Edition114th Congress (2015 - 2016) - 2nd Session

[Page S5177]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 48--EXPRESSING THE SENSE OF CONGRESS THAT 
THE ITALIAN SUPREME COURT OF CASSATION SHOULD DOMESTICATE AND RECOGNIZE 
  JUDGMENTS ISSUED BY UNITED STATES COURTS ON BEHALF OF UNITED STATES 
VICTIMS OF TERRORISM, AND THAT THE ITALIAN MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS 
   SHOULD CEASE ITS POLITICAL INTERFERENCE WITH ITALY'S INDEPENDENT 
 JUDICIARY, WHICH IT CARRIES OUT IN THE INTERESTS OF STATE SPONSORS OF 
             TERRORISM SUCH AS THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN

  Mr. BLUMENTHAL (for himself, Mr. Kirk, and Mr. Murphy) submitted the 
following concurrent resolution; which was referred to the Committee on 
Foreign Relations:

                            S. Con. Res. 48

       Whereas, in 1996, Congress passed the Terrorism Exception 
     to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act to give United States 
     citizens a private means of redress for injuries and deaths 
     caused by state-sponsored acts of terrorism (originally 
     codified at section 1605(a)(7) of title 28, United States 
     Code and subsequently amended and re-codified at section 
     1605A of title 28, United States Code) (in this resolution 
     referred to as the ``Terrorism Exception'');
       Whereas the Terrorism Exception continues to be an 
     important tool for the United States Government to protect 
     the interests of its nationals, and to deter global 
     terrorism;
       Whereas the families of Alisa Flatow, Sarah Duker, and 
     Matthew Eisenfeld, United States students killed in Iran-
     sponsored bombings, secured judgments against the Islamic 
     Republic of Iran in United States Federal court for its role 
     in those murders;
       Whereas the families of Alisa Flatow, Sarah Duker, and 
     Matthew Eisenfeld attempted to enforce those United States 
     judgments against Iranian assets held in Italy;
       Whereas the families of Alisa Flatow, Sarah Duker, and 
     Matthew Eisenfeld initially domesticated their judgments in 
     Italian court;
       Whereas the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs entered 
     appearances in subsequent proceedings on behalf of the 
     Islamic Republic of Iran, interfering with the domestication 
     and successfully causing the Italian Supreme Court of 
     Cassation (Italy's highest court of appeal) to overturn the 
     Court of Appeals of Rome's judgment in favor of these United 
     States terrorism victims (Islamic Republic of Iran v. Flatow, 
     Cass., sez. un., 22 giugno 2007, n. 14570 (It.); Islamic 
     Republic of Iran v. Eisenfeld, Cass., sez. un., 22 giugno 
     2007, n. 14571 (It.));
       Whereas the Italian Supreme Court of Cassation condemned 
     the Terrorism Exception--a crucial United States 
     antiterrorism statute--as a violation of international law on 
     the grounds that it gives United States citizens a remedy for 
     acts of terrorism committed outside of the United States 
     (Flatow v. Islamic Republic of Iran, Cass., sez. un., 28 
     ottobre 2015, n. 21946 (It.); Eisenfeld v. Islamic Republic 
     of Iran, Cass., sez. un., 28 ottobre 2015, n. 21947 (It.));
       Whereas the Italian Supreme Court of Cassation therefore 
     refuses to recognize any judgments issued by United States 
     courts under the Terrorism Exception (id.);
       Whereas Congress will use every tool at its disposal to 
     seek justice for United States citizens who are murdered in 
     acts of terrorism, including attacks committed outside the 
     United States; and
       Whereas United States courts have applied the Terrorism 
     Exception to bring justice to European Union victims of 
     state-sponsored terrorism directed against United States 
     nationals (see, e.g., Hurst v. Socialist People's Libyan Arab 
     Jamahiriya, 474 F. Supp. 2d 19 (D.D.C. 2007); Rein v. 
     Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, 995 F. Supp. 325 
     (E.D.N.Y. 1998)): Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives 
     concurring), That it is the sense of Congress that--
       (1) Italy has violated the principle of reciprocity 
     governing the mutual recognition of domestic court awards 
     between our two nations;
       (2) the intervention by the Italian Ministry of Foreign 
     Affairs on behalf of Iran against victims of Iranian 
     terrorism was initiated to the detriment of both United 
     States and European Union terrorism victims; and
       (3) the European Court of Human Rights should--
       (A) overturn the Italian Supreme Court of Cassation's 
     erroneous rulings in Flatow v. Islamic Republic of Iran 
     (Cass., sez. un., 28 ottobre 2015, n. 21946 (It.)) and 
     Eisenfeld v. Islamic Republic of Iran (Cass., sez. un., 28 
     ottobre 2015, n. 21947 (It.)); and
       (B) order the Italian Supreme Court of Cassation to 
     recognize the United States judgments held by the Flatow, 
     Duker, and Eisenfeld families against Iran.

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