Filartiga part 3

In 1980, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit heard Filartiga v Pena-Irala 630 F.2d 879 (C.A.N.Y. 1980) and determined that torture violated universally held norms and was a violation of the law of nations. The original lawsuit claimed the following causes of action: “wrongful death statutes; the U. N. Charter; the Universal Declaration on Human Rights; the U. N. Declaration Against Torture; the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man; and other pertinent declarations, documents and practices constituting the customary international law of human rights and the law of nations,” as well as 28 U.S.C. sec. 1350, Article II, sec. 2 and the Supremacy Clause of the U. S. Constitution. Jurisdiction is claimed under the general federal question provision,28 U.S.C. sec. 1331 and, principally on this appeal, under the Alien Tort Statute, 28 U.S.C. sec. 1350 (id at. 879)

On May 14, 1979 the suit was dismissed on jurisdictional grounds. The plaintiffs were given 48 hours to apply for other forms of stay, but were denied on these grounds as well. Shortly thereafter Pena left the country. The court put heavy emphasis on The Paquete Habana 175 U.S. 677 (1900) in stating that courts must interpret international law not as it was in 1789 but as it has evolved. The court then quotes the U.N. Charter stating that a states treatment of its OWN citizens is now a concern of all nations. (Filartiga at 881) The Court quotes further U.N. language holding that the torture of one's citizens is not to be had and that all persons shall be free from torture. (id. at 882-883) The court concludes that it is the proper venue in that federal courts have always had the ability to hear cases concerning international law.