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Contact

Contact with chambers should be made through the Practice Management Team. They are happy to discuss client requirements and provide further information on such matters as the expertise and experience of individual members, fees, working practices and languages spoken. We have members able to work in French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Greek and Chinese (Mandarin).

Outside working hours, a member of our team is always available to be contacted on matters of an urgent nature. Contact should be made using the Chambers main number or email.

For our Singapore office, for client enquiries please contact our Head of Business Development for Asia Pacific, Katie-Beth Jones, and for all other queries please contact Lynn Quek. Out of office hours calls will automatically be diverted to our practice management team in London.

London

20 Essex Street
London
WC2R 3AL

enquiries@twentyessex.com
t: +44 20 7842 1200

Singapore

28 Maxwell Road
#02-03 Maxwell Chambers Suites
Singapore 069120

singapore@twentyessex.com
t: +65 62257230

Contact

Contact with chambers should be made through the Practice Management Team. They are happy to discuss client requirements and provide further information on such matters as the expertise and experience of individual members, fees, working practices and languages spoken. We have members able to work in French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Greek and Chinese (Mandarin).

Outside working hours, a member of our team is always available to be contacted on matters of an urgent nature. Contact should be made using the Chambers main number or email.

For our Singapore office, for client enquiries please contact our Head of Business Development for Asia Pacific, Katie-Beth Jones, and for all other queries please contact Lynn Quek. Out of office hours calls will automatically be diverted to our practice management team in London.

London

20 Essex Street
London
WC2R 3AL

enquiries@twentyessex.com
t: +44 20 7842 1200

Singapore

28 Maxwell Road
#02-03 Maxwell Chambers Suites
Singapore 069120

singapore@twentyessex.com
t: +65 62257230

15/09/2020

Professor Stefan Talmon submits amicus brief to US Supreme Court regarding ‘Guelph Treasure’

Professor Stefan Talmon joined eight other eminent international law experts in submitting an amicus curiae brief to the US Supreme Court on questions of State immunity and genocide.

The case concerns the question of whether the (then) State of Prussia’s acquisition, in 1935, of parts of the Guelph Treasure or “Welfenschatz” (currently valued at some US$ 250 million) is covered by the so-called “expropriation exception” of the US Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976. The exception requires a “taking” that occurs “in violation of international law”. The Court will have to decide whether the expropriation exception covers conduct that took place outside of the United States (in Germany) and between nationals of a foreign State (Germany). The Court will also have to address the question of whether international law recognises an exception to State immunity for international crimes like genocide or other grave breaches of international law. Finally, the Court will have to decide whether the 1935 purchase of the Welfenschatz constituted an act of genocide.

Read the amicus curae brief

Relevant members
Professor Stefan Talmon
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