Search: Sosa

31 Mar Copernicus Speaks: Even More on Customary International Law and Sosa v. Alvarez Machain

Just in case some of our readers missed our panel at the American Society of International Law Meeting yesterday on customary international law, I would recommend you check out a very impressive and interesting exchange in the new online version of the Virginia Law Review – In Brief. The lead piece is by Judge William Fletcher of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and a former law professor. In his comment on Fletcher’s writings, Professor John Harrison of UVA compares Fletcher’s importance in the scholarship...

26 Sep Online Workshop Response

...Filartiga and its progeny only by misinterpreting those cases. I would suggest that one can evade Sosa’s rejection of much of the pre-Sosa case law only by ignoring those cases or the parts of those cases that were inconsistent with Sosa. That is, Beth seems to define Filartiga and its progeny only to include those cases that took a “remarkably cautious” approach to the Alien Tort Statute. While it is true that Sosa did not reject all, or perhaps even most, of what had emanated from Filartiga, the Court’s adoption...

01 Sep Case of the Month: Sarei v. Rio Tinto (by John Knox)

...round of briefs to allow the parties to take the effect of Sosa into account. Since Sosa was generally seen (well, by me, anyway) as making it more difficult, if not impossible, for plaintiffs to bring environmental degradation claims under ATCA, the plaintiffs seemed to face an uphill battle in convincing the Ninth Circuit to reinstate their environmental claims. The plaintiffs may well have agreed; they didn’t even appeal the dismissal of the life/health/sustainable development claims. But, mirabile dictu, in its August 2006 decision the panel reinstated, by a 2-1...

24 May Statutory Rape and the ATS

...under § 1350 cannot be based solely on a violation of our criminal code. For her second contention Ms. Cisneros relies on an Interpol website titled “Legislation of Interpol Member States on Sexual Offences against Children,” and on Articles 16 and 34 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. But neither source states norms of international law that satisfy the “requirement of clear definition” set forth in Sosa. See Sosa, 542 U.S. at 733 n. 21. The Interpol website simply summarizes pertinent statutes provided by member...

18 Apr Bellinger Speaks Out on ATS Litigation

private entities may be held liable under the ATS for aiding and abetting human rights abuses perpetrated by foreign governments. A fourth issue is how to apply Sosa’s requirement that an international-law norm be sufficiently accepted and specific. And fifth, in what circumstances should courts dismiss suits based on what Sosa referred to as “case-specific deference to the political branches”? Bellinger then highlights the costs and benefits of ATS litigation. The three principal benefits of ATS litigation he outlines are: (1) promoting accountability and providing a public voice to victims;...

08 Dec A Response to Justine Nolan by Odette Murray, David Kinley and Chip Pitts

...in Kiobel, not least because the Exxon judgment operates as a kind of Kiobel rehearing, in that the Exxon plaintiffs relied on a number of amicus briefs that were filed in support of the petition for rehearing en banc in Kiobel, which the Second Circuit had denied. The Exxon majority opinion, authored by Judge Rogers, begins by recognizing that ‘corporate liability differs fundamentally from the conduct-governing norms at issue in Sosa’.[1] Whereas ‘Sosa instructs us that the substantive content of the common law cause of action that courts recognize in...

28 Sep Online Workshop Response: The Last Word

[Opinio Juris Note: Thanks to everyone, especially David Moore, for participating in the online workshop this week. Here is David’s last post and the last contribution to what has been a very interesting and useful workshop.] Marty is, of course, right that the issue before the Court in Sosa was not whether all CIL qualifies as federal common law or whether the creation of CIL-based common law requires positive authorization. The issue was whether the ATS supports common law claims based on CIL. That does not mean, however, that Sosa...

02 Oct Kiobel Roundtable: Protecting National Interests or Universal Ones?

...Kagan (p. 40), all appeared to start from the premise that piracy was an intended subject of the ATS. What is odd about this is how little historical basis there is for this assumption. Sosa explained the ATS as aimed at a different type of international law violation: violations (like the well-known Marbois incident) for which the United States would be held responsible, which if not “adequately redressed” could give rise to “serious consequences in international affairs.” Sosa goes on to express uncertainty about whether piracy was an intended subject...

11 Oct A Response to Kevin Heller on Doe v. Nestle

...not sure Kevin entirely does) that this debate arises in the unique context of the Alien Tort Statute (ATS). So the question is not purely whether there is, or could be, or might be, a rule of international law. The question is whether there is a rule of international law that meets the high standards set by the U.S. Supreme Court in Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain. In that case the Court held that the ATS permits a cause of action only for a very limited class of well-defined and undisputed violations...