Alien Tort Claims Act

Overview

The ATCA was written in 1789 as a part the Judiciary Act and it asserted rather simply and vaguely that "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" (emphasis added). The law lay dormant for almost two centuries until in 1979 a Paraguan police inspector was served papers when he visited the U.S. for the torture and death of a man in Paraguay. In Filartiga v Pena-Irala, the father of the deceased was awarded $10,375,000 in 1984, of which he will never collect a single penny. However, the case did set a precedent, allowing for over twenty cases to reach the high courts based on the wording of this law. The ATCA has been used as a last refuge against the actions made by government officials and corporations in violation of international law, however sitting heads of state and governments themselves are immune under the law.

Cases

• Trajano v Marcos
• Doe v Karadzic and Kadic v Karadzic
• Abebe-Jira v Negewo
• Doe v Unocal Corporation, et al.
• Wiwa v Royal Dutch Petroleum Company, et al.
• Abdullahi, et al. v Pfizer, Inc
• Aguinda v. Texaco, Inc.
• Al Odah, et al. v United States
• Alvarez-Machain v. United States
• Arias, et al. v DynCorp, et al.
• Bano, et al. v Union Carbide Corp., et al.
• Beanal, et al. v Freeport-McMoran, Inc., et al.
• Bigio, et al. v Coca-Cola, et al.
• Bowoto, et al. v Chevron, et al.
• Carmichael, et al. v United Technologies Corp., et al.
• John Doe I, et al. v ExxonMobile Corop., et al.
• Estate of Rodriguez, et al. v Drummond Company, Inc., et al
• Hamid v. Price Waterhouse
• In Re South African Apartheid Litigation
• Mujica v. Occidental Petroleum, et al.
• The Presbyterian Church of Sudan, et al. v Talisman Energy, Inc., et al
• Sarei, et al. v Rio Tinto, et al
• Sinaltrainal, et al. v Coca-Cola Co., et al.
• Villeda, et al. v Fresh Del Monte Produce Inc., et al.
• Bauman et al. v DaimlerChrysler Corp.