The purpose of this Blog

The purpose of this blog is to track the history and development, historical and current, of the Alien Tort Statute (also referred to as Alien Tort Claim Act). I became interested in the ATS while working for Prof. William Aceves at California Western School of Law. In my opinion the ATS is a powerful vehicle to address and redress wrongs and grievances for aliens in U.S. courts against those individuals who are immune or unlikely to be prosecuted in the aliens home country.

This blog will first lay out the legislative groundwork/history of the ATS, at least what little exist. It will then briefly go through the cases leading up to the seminal case of Filartiga v Pena-Irala 630 F.2d 876 (2d Cir. 1980). The cases following Filartiga will be dissected in greater detail up to Sosa v Alvarez-Machain 542 U.S. 692 (2004). I would also like to trace any case concerning ATS that is currently in litigation or is about to go into litigation to track any changes or worthwhile theories as to what actions do or do not fall within the requirements of the ATS.

For those that are wondering the ATS is codified at 28 U.S.C. 1350 and states "The district courts shall have original jurisdiction of 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."