Sinochem International Co., Ltd. v. Malaysia International Shipping Corporation

Decided March 5, 2007. Ruth Bader Ginsburg delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 06-102 · 549 U.S. 422 (2007) · Cited 1,961 times

Holding

A district court has discretion to respond at once to a defendant’s forum non conveniens plea, and need not take up first any other threshold objection.

The Court’s statement of the holding, from the opinion’s syllabus. The syllabus is prepared by the Reporter of Decisions and is not part of the opinion of the Court — read the official opinion for authority.

How the Justices voted

Decided 9–0.

“Concurring” means agreeing with the outcome; any split shown is the Court’s judgment, not each Justice’s reasoning. Source: the Supreme Court Database (Spaeth et al.), Washington University.

Precedents cited

Supreme Court decisions this opinion relies on, ordered by how often it cites each. Cases in our collection link through; others are named.

• Ruhrgas Ag v. Marathon Oil Co. · 526 U.S. 574 (1999)
• Van Cauwenberghe v. Biard · 486 U.S. 517 (1988)
• Steel Co. v. Citizens for a Better Environment · 523 U.S. 83 (1998)
• American Dredging Co. v. Miller · 510 U.S. 443 (1994)
• Cohen v. Beneficial Industrial Loan Corp. · 337 U.S. 541 (1949)
• Piper Aircraft Co. v. Reyno · 454 U.S. 235 (1981)
• Younger v. Harris · 401 U.S. 37 (1971)
• Gulf Oil Corp. v. Gilbert · 330 U.S. 501 (1947)
• Coopers & Lybrand v. Livesay · 437 U.S. 463 (1978)
• Quackenbush v. Allstate Insurance · 517 U.S. 706 (1996)
• Goldlawr, Inc. v. Heiman · 369 U.S. 463 (1962)
• Moor v. County of Alameda · 411 U.S. 693 (1973)
• Koster v. (American) Lumbermens Mutual Casualty Co. · 330 U.S. 518 (1947)
• Chick Kam Choo v. Exxon Corp. · 486 U.S. 140 (1988)
• Tenet v. Doe · 544 U.S. 1 (2005)
• Totten v. United States · 92 U.S. 105 (1876)
• Ellis v. Dyson · 421 U.S. 426 (1975)

Cited by

Later Supreme Court opinions in our collection that cite this case.

• Atlantic Marine Constr. Co. v. United States Dist. Court for Western Dist. of Tex. · 571 U.S. 49 (2013)
• Acheson Hotels, LLC v. Laufer · 601 U.S. 1 (2023)
• PennEast Pipeline Co. v. New Jersey · 594 U.S. 482 (2021)

Official text

Read the official opinion (U.S. Reports, govinfo.gov)

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Source: Supreme Court of the United States, slip opinions (2007). Citation count from the Free Law Project’s CourtListener bulk data. Data last verified 2026-07-03. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).