High Court Nazi Art Rulings Impede Restorative Justice
Kathryn Lee Boyd - Hecht Partners llp
The vast majority of Holocaust survivors, whose own governments stole their property during the course of mass human rights violations, and their heirs have no recourse in U.S. courts.
February 8, 2021 - A pair of restitution cases regarding Holocaust-era stolen property has been decided by the US Supreme Court: Federal Republic of Germany v. Philipp, [1]for return of medieval art stolen by the Nazis, along with the companion case of Republic of Hungary v. Simon,[2] for return of personal property stolen from14 Holocaust survivors.
Both were bellwether cases for those of us who have advocated with halting success in U.S. courts on behalf of the true owners of Nazi-stolen property still in the hands of foreign governments.
Decided in favor of the sovereigns, the decisions may be the fatal blow to restorative justice in the U.S. — not only for U.S. citizen heirs to Holocaust victims, but also victims of other genocides and human rights catastrophes, such as the genocides in Armenia and Darfur. read the full story