LCHR Signs Brief Supporting ATCA

In June, 2003, LCHR signed an amicus brief in The Presbyterian Church of Sudan v. Talisman Energy affirming the interpretation of the Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA) by the Second Circuit and numerous other federal courts over the past 23 years. Talisman Energy is being sued for its alleged support of and complicity in the Sudanese government’s torture, enslavement and persecution of Christians living in a southern Sudan region identified for oil exploration.

The brief was submitted in response to an unprecedented move by the Justice Department in which it asked another federal court to construe the statute in a very restrictive way which would make it virtually impossible to use it to address human rights violations. (See Justice Department Seeks To Reverse Two Decades of Progress Under Important US Human Rights Law). The brief, signed by LCHR, the Center for Justice and Accountability, and thirteen prominent professors of international law, critiques the flaws in the Justice Department’s arguments and points out that the Justice Department’s position represents a significant departure from the previous support the U.S. government has lent to victims in ATCA cases.

The brief states: “The government’s most recent interpretation [of the ATCA] is unpersuasive: it contradicts the express terms of the statute and renders the statute either meaningless or superfluous. It invites the courts to amend the statute without bothering with Congress, which not only adopted the ATCA but which expanded it in the Torture Victim Protection Act of 1992. The position adopted by the government has been rejected by every court to address the issue … The DOJ Brief also betrays a fundamental disregard for the Framers’ original understanding of the law of nations and its role in domestic litigation.”

Read the full text of the brief>>