The US Supreme Court Affirms the Filartiga Paradigm

In 2004, for the first time in history, the United States Supreme Court addressed the meaning and scope of the Alien Tort Statute (ATS) of 1789. Originally intended to provide redress for acts of piracy or offences against ambassadors, the Statute has been used since the 1980 watershed case of Filartiga v. Peña-Irala to award damages in civil trials in the United States to foreign victims of, inter alia, torture, summary execution and forced disappearance. Opponents have claimed, among other things, that use of the ATS shows disregard for principles of international comity; is inconsistent with principles governing the use of universal jurisdiction; and results in an imperialist American privatization of human rights. The author argues that the Supreme Court's decision in Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain limits the ATS to a tool of complementary justice consistent with prevailing principles of global accountability

Alien Tort Statute · Comity · Human rights · Jurisdiction · Liability · Political science · Redress · Statute · Supreme court · Tort · Torture · Universal jurisdiction · Corporate Law and Human Rights · International Law and Aviation · International Law and Human Rights · Law