OLD LAW

Most people know I love history. Well here is a bit of history that has come back to bite the USA on the butt, so to speak. A law written in 1789, called the Alien Tort Claims Act , which was originally written to fight piracy, is being used by foreigners, to use American courts to sue for human right violations overseas.



Right now the victims of the Abu Ghraib prison abuse are using the law to sue the private contractors that were running the prison. But the law has been used in other cases. Holocaust survivors used the law against the Swiss banks to retrieve assets that the Nazis took from them. And the people in Myanmar are using the law to sue an American company involved in a gas pipeline project. They are claiming slave labor.



Its this ability to sue in American courts for acts the victims claim are severe is what causes American businesses to think twice about setting up shop in another country or doing business in another country. But the law was intended to be used on crimes that the international community would deem particularly heinous. The case that brought the act to the Supreme Court was about a Mexican doctor who was detained illegally for a few hours during the investigation of the death of a DEA agent. Although the Court upheld the Act, they determined that the case did not meet the requirements and was thrown out.



While the courts are concerned about how these cases will affect American Foreign policy, the Bush administration is worried it will affect their war on Terror.