The latest installment of Harvard Law Professor Noah Feldman's Bloomberg News legal column entitled "A Nasty Split in U.S. Courts Over Human Rights" contains a few topics that might (should!) be of interest to students of American law. Feldman writes about a recent split in the circuits over the enforcement of human rights in U.S. Courts. The first thing that should jump out to students are the words "split in the circuits". Feldman then writes:
A company whose violation of human rights abroad strongly affects the U.S. can be sued in any federal court in the country -- except New York and Connecticut’s Second Circuit. A decision there Tuesday means it will remain stubbornly outside the pack.Here one has to focus again on the words. By using the words "federal court" the reader should know that we are talking about cases filed in the federal court system. The possible confusion comes in when he mentions "New York and Connecticut's Second Circuit." Here we have to understand that he is not talking about state courts, but rather the federal court of appeals that has jurisdiction over federal cases that arise in the geographical region of New York and Connecticut.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit split 4-3 -- nastily -- in its refusal to get into conformity with the other circuits.
The rest of the article is also worth a read as it explains how "in 1980, the Second Circuit held that the law (Alien Tort Statute) could be used by a foreigner to sue a foreigner in the U.S. courts for international law violations that took place outside the U.S.." The article goes on to explain how in 2013 the U.S. Supreme Court restricted the ability of such cases being filed in U.S. courts, and how this most recent ruling by the Second Circuit puts up further hurdles to such actions.
