Alien Tort Claims Act
The US Alien Tort Statute , ATS for short, or Alien Tort Claims Act (about: Law for the Regulation of Foreign Claims ), ATCA for short, stipulates that claims based on US civil law take precedence over US claims can be negotiated courts and erklagt, even if the parties do not American nationality are and the events that constitute the basis for a claim, did not take place on US soil. However, this only applies expressly to violations of international law or an international treaty in which the USA is one of the contracting parties. The original English text is:
"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."
"Only the federal district courts should have first instance jurisdiction over any civil action brought by a foreigner in a case of damage committed in violation of the Law of the Nations or an agreement of the United States."
Because neither the location nor the parties involved need to have a relationship with the USA, the ATCA makes it theoretically possible to hear any civil claim in any country in the world in a US court or any civil action instead of in a local court to bring before a US court if there is a violation of international law or international treaties or at least is successfully constructed. The United States Supreme Court appealed in its judgment in the Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co. in 2013, however, contradicted this reading and denied the extraterritorial validity of the ATS.
The ATCA was passed in 1789, almost immediately after the establishment of the US state. The ATCA only received worldwide attention when, in the 1990s, descendants of Holocaust victims and slave laborers under German National Socialism sued Germany and Austria as legal successors of the Nazi regime and German corporations in US courts and were awarded several billion dollars in damages, although the majority of the plaintiffs were non-US residents. The successor was always organized and initiated by US lawyers, e.g. B. Lawsuits against Germany by the Hereros in Namibia (later discontinued), against Switzerland because of the gold confiscated from Jews and against German companies like Daimler-Chrysler because of their support for apartheid in South Africa .
The international jurisdiction of US courts conferred by the ATCA is excessive from a European point of view and at least questionable in terms of international law because of the massive encroachment on foreign sovereign rights. An American judgment issued on this basis is unlikely to be recognizable or enforceable in Germany due to the lack of recognition competence ( Section 328 (1) No. 1 ZPO ) ( Section 722 (1), Section 723 (2) sentence 2 ZPO).
literature
- Alexander Abel : The Alien Tort Statute after the decision of the US Supreme Court in the Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain . An American Way to Protect Human Rights . Shaker, Aachen 2007, ISBN 978-3-8322-5908-2 .
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