Title: The Alien Tort Statute and the Judiciary Act of 1789: A Badge of Honor
Abstract: The Alien Tort Statute, originally enacted as section 9 of the Judiciary Act of 1789, grants the district courts original jurisdiction over “any civil action by an alien for a tort only, committed in violation of the law of nations or a treaty of the United States.” In 1980 the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit breathed new life into these little-used and somewhat mysterious provisions. The case was Filartiga v. Pena-Irala , in which a Paraguayan family brought suit against a former Paraguayan police chief for the torture and death of one of its members. The court upheld federal jurisdiction under the Alien Tort Statute. Finding state torture to be a violation of “modern international law,” it pronounced itself willing to enforce this law even as between aliens whenever personal jurisdiction could be obtained over the defendant.
Publication Year: 1989
Publication Date: 1989-07-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 67
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