Tort Liability for Human Rights Abuses

1. Auflage 2008
ISBN: 978-1-84113-794-0
Verlag: Bloomsbury 3PL

Buch, Englisch, 222 Seiten, Format (B × H): 140 mm x 216 mm, Gewicht: 288 g

Advancing a bold theory of the relevance of tort law in the fight against human rights abuses, celebrated US law professor George Fletcher here challenges the community of international lawyers to think again about how they can use the Alien Tort Statute. Beginning with an historical analysis Fletcher shows how tort and criminal law originally evolved to deal with similar problems, how tort came to be seen as primarily concerned with negligence and how the Alien Tort Statute has helped establish the importance of tort law in international cases. In a series of cases starting with Filartiga and culminating most recently in Sosa, Fletcher shows how torture cases led to the reawakening of the Alien Tort Statute, changing US law and giving legal practitioners a tool with which to assist victims of torture and other extreme human rights abuses. This leads to an examination of Agent Orange and the possible commission of war crimes in the course of its utilisation, and the theory of liability for aiding and abetting the US military and other military forces when they commit war crimes. The book concludes by looking at the cutting-edge cases in this area, particularly those involving liability for funding terrorism, and the remedies available, particularly the potential offered by the compensation chamber in the International Criminal Court.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Fletcher, George P

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Kultur Menschenrechte, Bürgerrechte
• Rechtswissenschaften Internationales Recht und Europarecht Internationales Recht Internationale Menschen- und Minderheitenrechte, Kinderrechte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1 General tort principles: the general principles of the common law and civil law systems.
Why tort law is of importance to the international practitioner today.

2 Conflicting Paradigms: fairness vs. efficiency, how this plays out in the new era of using torts to protect human rights.

3. The History of ATS: the 1789 statute in the US for protection foreign plaintiffs against human rights abuses.

4 From Filartiga to Sosa: The early history of the statute and its sudden reawakening in 1980 in the Filartiga torture case. Other cases leading up to the Supreme Court decision in Sosa

5. The 21st Century: detailed analysis of the 2004 Sosa opinion, the benchmark for all future cases.

6. Agent Orange and War Crimes: The theory liability of aiding and abetting the American military and other mlitary forces when they commit war crimes.

7. Arab Banks and the Liability for Funding Terrorism, the cutting edge cases in this area.

9. International remedies. The compensation chamber in the ICC and its potential.

Über Autor(innen)

George P Fletcher is the Cardozo Professor of Jurisprudence at Columbia University in New York.