Torture Victim Protection Legislation

Alien Tort Claims Act and Torture Victim Protection Act in 2013

United States views on international law [1] in relation to Alien Tort Claims Act and Torture Victim Protection Act: The Alien Tort Claims Act (“ATCA”), also referred to as the Alien Tort Statute (“ATS”), was enacted as part of the First Judiciary Act in 1789 and is now codified at 28 U.S.C. § 1350. It provides that U.S. federal district courts “shall have original jurisdiction of any civil action by an alien for tort only, committed in violation of the law of nations or a treaty of the United States.” The statute was rarely invoked until Filartiga v. Pena-Irala, 630 F.2d 876 (2d Cir. 1980); following Filartiga, the statute has been interpreted by the federal courts in cases raising human rights claims under international law. In 2004 the Supreme Court held that the ATCA is “in terms only jurisdictional” but that, in enacting the ATCA in 1789, Congress intended to “enable[] federal courts to hear claims in a very limited category defined by the law of nations and recognized at common law.” Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain, 542 U.S. 692 (2004). By its terms, this statutory basis for suit is available only to aliens. In an amicus curiae memorandum filed in the Second Circuit in Filartiga v. Pena-Irala, the United States described the ATCA as one avenue through which “an individual's fundamental human rights [can be] in certain situations directly enforceable in domestic courts.” Memorandum for the United States as Amicus Curiae at 21, Filartiga v. Pena-Irala, 630 F.2d. 876 (2d Cir. 1980) (No. 79-6090).

Some Aspects of Alien Tort Claims Act and Torture Victim Protection Act

The Torture Victim Protection Act (“TVPA”), which was enacted in 1992, Pub. L. No. 102-256, 106 Stat. 73, appears as a note to 28 U.S.C. § 1350. It provides a cause of action in federal courts against “[a]n individual . . . [acting] under actual or apparent authority, or color of law, of any foreign nation” for individuals, including U.S. nationals, who are victims of official torture or extrajudicial killing. The TVPA contains an exhaustion requirement and a ten-year statute of limitations. The following entries discuss 2013 developments in a selection of cases brought under the ATCA and the TVPA in which the United States participated. Several cases involving claims under the TVPA are discussed in Chapter 10.

Resources

Notes

1. Alien Tort Claims Act and Torture Victim Protection Act in the Digest of United States Practice in International Law