The Foreign Service Journal, September 2003

10 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / S E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 3 Alien Claims Tort Act: Help or Hindrance? A recent court case highlights the controversy brewing around a 1789 law originally intended to prosecute acts of international piracy, which is now being used by Human Rights advocates. The Alien Tort Claims Act, or ACTA, gives American courts jurisdiction over violations of U.S. laws and treaties committed outside the United States against foreign nationals. Since the U.S. is a signatory to var- ious pieces of international human rights law, claims have been brought against American multinationals operating abroad for supporting repressive regimes, or aiding and abetting human rights violations. Over the past decade 26 cases have been filed, half of which have been dismissed outright and none of which has yet been decided in favor of the plaintiffs. In July, California’s Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals heard an appeal in the latest such case, one against American energy giant Unocal in connection with its pipeline project in Myanmar. Unocal is charged with knowingly using slave labor to build the pipeline. A year ago, a three- judge panel found there was suffi- cient evidence for Unocal to stand trial. The California court went ahead and set a September date for trial, though it did narrow the scope of the case. For details on the Unocal case, check out Unocal’s own Web site ( h ttp://www.unocal.com/myan mar/ ), as w ell as the Web site of the International Labor Rights Fund ( h ttp://www.laborrights.org ), a Washington-based NGO that has been lead counsel in this and many of the other suits under ACTA. The ILRF site has a summary of each of the human rights cases brought under ACTA and status reports on all of them, as well as legal details of each issue. Human Rights Watch also features the law on its Web site, with a background, Q&A, and history of some of the cases ( h ttp:// w ww.hrw.org/campaigns/atca/ i ntro.htm ). Human rights and labor groups tend to see the ACTA as a valuable tool for bringing justice to the victims of American corporate misdeeds abroad, but business and other groups view it differently. USA-Engage ( w ww.usaengage.org ), a p ro-trade organization focusing on economic sanctions, and the National Foreign Trade Council ( w ww.nftc.org ), another free-trade group, have filed amicus briefs asserting that such suits harm American businesses and devel- oping countries by discouraging investment. Also opposed to a human rights interpretation of the law is Attorney General John Ashcroft, who filed a brief in the Unocal case advocating strong restrictions on the use of the law for such cases (the brief is avail- able at h ttp://www.hrw.org/press/ 2003/05/doj050803.pdf ). — Aster Grahn, Editorial Intern Iran In Sites Though the drumbeat in Wash- ington for another “regime change” has at least temporarily subsided, Iran isn’t likely to remain off the front pages for long. The inevitable spin on media discussion of this pivotal Middle Eastern nation, however, often makes it difficult to find out what is actually happening in Iran. Happily, there are a number of Web sites that offer news, information and analysis on various aspects of this energy-rich, complex and culturally distinctive country. For background, the Library of Congress has a comprehensive and detailed, yet readable, history of Iran through the Khomeini revolution ( h ttp://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/irtoc. h tml ). The CIA World Factbook is a good source for up-to-date basics on the country ( h ttp://www.cia.gov/ ci a/publications/factbook/geos/ir. h tml ), and the Department of C YBERNOTES T he existence of military strength and other forms of leverage are prime diplomatic assets; but, as always, a global diplomacy is the first line of defense, the for- ward presence where our national interests in internation- al peace and justice may possi- bly be secured short of war. — Former Secretary of State George Shultz, accepting AFSA’s Lifetime Achievement Award, June 26, 2003.