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Who Watches The Watchmen? 'Vigilant Doorkeeping,' The Alien Tort Statute, & Possible Reform, Keith A. Petty
Who Watches The Watchmen? 'Vigilant Doorkeeping,' The Alien Tort Statute, & Possible Reform, Keith A. Petty
Keith A. Petty
The Alien Tort Statute (ATS) allows alien plaintiffs to file civil actions in U.S. district courts for torts violating the law of nations or U.S. treaties. After the 2nd Circuit’s Filartiga decision in 1980, the debate began as to whether the ATS was a useful tool against human rights violators or an intrusion into U.S. foreign relations. In 2004, the Supreme Court in Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain resolved some of the questions left open by Filartiga.
Sosa concluded that ATS claims must be limited to law of nations violations as well defined as those recognized in 1789. The Court tasked the …