Recent sanctions against Russia’s central bank have prompted news stories to mention sovereign immunity as a potential limitation on sanctions by the United States and the European Union. Some scholars assume that immunity generally applies to these assets, but the issue is more complicated than it initially appears. Central bank assets invested in other countries receive a very high level of protection under the doctrine of foreign sovereign immunity. In the United States, as in many other countries, the international legal obligation to confer immunity on the assets of foreign central banks has been codified—the ... (full story)