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Sosa, Federal Question Jurisdiction, And Historical Fidelity, Anthony J. Bellia
Sosa, Federal Question Jurisdiction, And Historical Fidelity, Anthony J. Bellia
Anthony J. Bellia
In his paper "International Human Rights in American Courts," Judge Fletcher concludes that Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain “has left us with more questions than answers.” Sosa attempted to adapt certain principles belonging to the "general law" to a post-Erie positivistic conception of common law while maintaining fidelity to certain historical expectations. “[I]t would be unreasonable,” the Court thought, “to assume that the First Congress would have expected federal courts to lose all capacity to recognize enforceable international norms simply because the common law might lose some metaphysical cachet on the road to modern realism.” The Court was unwilling, however, out …
The Federal Common Law Of Nations, Anthony J. Bellia, Bradford R. Clark
The Federal Common Law Of Nations, Anthony J. Bellia, Bradford R. Clark
Anthony J. Bellia
Courts and scholars have vigorously debated the proper role of customary international law in American courts: To what extent should it be considered federal common law, state law, or general law? The debate has reached something of an impasse, in part because various positions rely on, but also are in tension with, historical practice and constitutional structure. This Article describes the role that the law of nations actually has played throughout American history. In keeping with the original constitutional design, federal courts for much of that history enforced certain rules respecting other nations' perfect rights (or close analogues) under the …
The Alien Tort Statute And The Law Of Nations, Bradford R. Clark, Anthony J. Bellia Jr.
The Alien Tort Statute And The Law Of Nations, Bradford R. Clark, Anthony J. Bellia Jr.
Anthony J. Bellia
Courts and scholars have struggled to identify the original meaning of the Alien Tort Statute (ATS). As enacted in 1789, the ATS provided "[t]hat the district courts... shall... have cognizance... of all causes where an alien sues for a tort only in violation of the law of nations or a treaty of the United States." The statute was rarely invoked for almost two centuries until, in the 1980s, lower federal courts began reading the statute expansively to allow foreign citizens to sue other foreign citizens for violations of modern customary international law that occurred outside the United States. In 2004 …