Medellin, the Alien Tort Statute, and the Domestic Status of International Law

24 Pages Posted: 15 Aug 2009 Last revised: 19 Jun 2015

See all articles by David H. Moore

David H. Moore

Brigham Young University - J. Reuben Clark Law School

Date Written: August 13, 2009

Abstract

While scholars have begun to debate the meaning of the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Medellin v. Texas for the domestic status of treaties, the decision’s import for other significant questions of foreign relations law has been ignored in the literature. This Article fills that void by exploring Medellin’s significance (a) for treaty and customary international law (CIL) based claims under the Alien Tort Statute, (b) for the hotly debated issue of CIL’s domestic legal status, and (c) for the recent claim that a uniform doctrine governing the domestic status of both treaties and CIL is developing in U.S. foreign relations law.

Keywords: Medellin, treaty, treaties, customary international law, CIL, self-execution, non-self-execution, ATS, Alien Tort Statute, foreign relations law

Suggested Citation

Moore, David H., Medellin, the Alien Tort Statute, and the Domestic Status of International Law (August 13, 2009). Virginia Journal of International Law, 2010, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1449524 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1449524

David H. Moore (Contact Author)

Brigham Young University - J. Reuben Clark Law School ( email )

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