World Wide Appeals Decision In US Lawsuit.Business Editors WASHINGTON, D.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 3, 2000 World Wide Minerals Ltd. (CDN (Content Delivery Network) A system of distributed content on a large intranet or the public Internet in which copies of content are replicated and cached throughout the network. :WWSS WWSS Worldwide Satellite Systems (US DoD contract vehicle) WWSS Warfare and Warfare Support System ) announced today that it is filing an immediate appeal with the United States Court of Appeals The United States courts of appeals (or circuit courts) are the intermediate appellate courts of the United States federal court system. A court of appeals decides appeals from the district courts within its federal judicial circuit, and in some instances from other for the District of Columbia District of Columbia, federal district (2000 pop. 572,059, a 5.7% decrease in population since the 1990 census), 69 sq mi (179 sq km), on the east bank of the Potomac River, coextensive with the city of Washington, D.C. (the capital of the United States). Circuit in Washington D.C. in its $1.0 billion lawsuit against the Republic of Kazakhstan, Kazatomprom and Nukem, Inc. The appeal results from the lower Court's decision wherein the judge accepted jurisdiction over the two Kazakhstan defendants but said it lacked jurisdiction over the U.S. company Nukem. However, the judge dismissed the Company's action against the Kazakhstan defendants, relying upon the "Act of State Doctrine Act of state doctrine This doctrine says that a nation is sovereign within its own borders, and its domestic actions may not be questioned in the courts of another nation. " which states that a US Court cannot invalidate in·val·i·date tr.v. in·val·i·dat·ed, in·val·i·dat·ing, in·val·i·dates To make invalid; nullify. in·val an act of a foreign sovereign. Paul Carroll, Chairman of World Wide, stated "clearly, we are not at all pleased with the decision but at least some ruling has been made. As for the Act of State Doctrine, he pointed out that "no acts of the Kazakhstan government would have to be declared invalid in the lawsuit. Furthermore, the actions of the Kazakhstan Government were done through commercial entities." "The Act of State Doctrine is subject to a major legal exception when foreign governments are acting in a commercial capacity," he explained. "This is a case about a privatized Kazakhstan company inducing World Wide to invest tens of millions of dollars in the Kazakhstan uranium industry, despite apparently having a secret agreement with Nukem that would prevent it from honoring its commitments," Carroll explained. The Kazakhstan government subsequently re-nationalized the Kazakhstan company and sold the World Wide property to other companies. "To let this decision stand would mean any government acting in a commercial activity could insulate itself from lawsuits by simply making a decree," Carroll added. "It would be another sad chapter in the annals of foreign direct investment in emerging markets." |
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