Argument Preview: Republic of the Philippines v. Pimentel

Excerpted below is Stanford student Anna Neill’s preview of Monday’s argument in Republic of the Philippines v. Pimentel. Read Anna’s full preview on SCOTUSwiki, available here.

The Court granted certiorari in this case on December 3, 2007 to consider “[w]hether a foreign government that is a ‘necessary’ party to a lawsuit under Rule 19(a) and has successfully asserted sovereign immunity is, under Rule 19(b), an ‘indispensable’ party to an action brought in the courts of the United States to settle ownership of assets claimed by that government.” The Court also directed the parties to brief and argue an additional question: “whether the Republic of the Philippines (Republic) and its Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG), having been dismissed from the interpleader action based on their successful assertion of sovereign immunity, had the right to appeal the district court’s determination that they were not indispensable parties under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 19(b); and whether the Republic and its PCGG have the right to seek this Court’s review of the court of appeals’s opinion affirming the district court.”