| The Alien Tort Statute (ATS), 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1350, passed as part of the Judiciary Act of 1789, was intended to give federal district courts jurisdiction to hear claims by aliens for torts in violation of law of nations or treaties of the United States. This was understood at the time to suit in federal courts to cover claims by aliens against acts of piracy, violations of safe-conducts, or interference with the rights of ambassadors.
The Act was largely dormant for nearly 200 years, until the Second Circuit ruled in Filartiga v. Pena-Irala, 630 F.2d 876 (2d Cir. 1980), that ATA created federal jurisdiction and a right of action in limited circumstances. The decision allowed a Paraguayan father and sister of a 17-year old decedent to sue the Paraguayan police official who kidnapped and tortured the decedent.
Congress has since limited the scope of that decision by enactment of the Torture Victim Protection Act (1992), which explicitly creates a right of action for torts involving torture and extrajudicial killing like that in Filartiga.
Filartiga remains on the books, but is now being abused by the plaintiffs' bar in ways not contemplated by either the Second Circuit or the First Congress.
This site provides links to NAM amicus briefs and correspondence to encourage courts and the Administration to recognize that the Alien Tort Statute is jurisdictional only, and does not provide a substantive cause of action to foreign plaintiffs. |