The Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976 (FSIA) is a United States law, codified at Title 28, §§ 1330, 1332, 1391(f), 1441(d), and 1602–1611 of the United States Code, that established criteria as to whether a foreign sovereign nation (or its political subdivisions, agencies, or instrumentalities) is immune from the jurisdiction of U.S. courts—federal or state. The Act also establishes specific procedures for service of process, attachment of property and execution of judgment in proceedings against a foreign state. The FSIA provides the exclusive basis and means to bring a civil suit against a foreign sovereign in the United States. It was signed into law by United States President Gerald Ford on October 21, 1976. History Foreign state immunity has a long history in U.S. courts. In an early case, The Schooner Exchange v. M'Faddon, 11 U.S. 116 (1812), the Supreme Court held that a private party could not sue the government of France. In that case, the Supreme Court concluded that a plaintiff cannot sue a foreign sovereign claiming ownership to a warship which had taken refuge in Philadelphia. Following international practice and common law principles, U.S. courts routinely refused to hear claims against foreign governments, even where those claims related to commercial activities. The U.S. State Department followed the absolute theory of immunity for foreign states, and courts generally relied on suggestions of immunity by the State Department in actions against foreign sovereigns. In 1952, the U.S. State Department, noting changes in international practice, adopted the restrictive theory of sovereign immunity according to which the public acts (jure imperii) of a foreign state are entitled to immunity, while the private acts (jure gestionis) are not. The United States was the first nation to codify the law of foreign sovereign immunity by statute. The FSIA had three broad objectives: (1) to transfer responsibility for immunity determinations from the Department of State to the judiciary; (2) to define and codify the "restrictive" theory of immunity; and (3) to provide a comprehensive, uniform regime for litigation against foreign states and governmental agencies. Though the Act places the determination of sovereign immunity fully in the hands of the judiciary, many courts have expressed reluctance to find that a defendant is a sovereign if the "state" in question is one that the U.S. government has not officially recognized, even if the defendant may arguably satisfy the definition of statehood under international law. The