One of the peculiarities of the Alien Tort Statute is its mix of cosmopolitan conceptions of justice with American exceptionalism. Under the ATS the U.S. has been the only nation in the world allowing for universal jurisdiction (“UJ”) in civil suits. So while enforcing international law has been the justification for these suits, it has […]
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ObamaCare and the ATS: Can the Feds Regulate the Whole World?
By Eugene Kontorovich on March 26, 2012 8:35 am in Alien Tort Statute, Constitutional Law, Global Governance/World Government, International Human Rights Law, International Law
Today the Supreme Court takes on the scope of the Commerce Clause in the historic healthcare cases. The case raises the question of whether there are any substantive limits to the federal government’s domestic regulatory power. But another case soon to be (re)argued before the Court, Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Shell, manages to raise an […]