District Court Holds that Federal Destruction of Property Statute Is Not Extraterritorial
On December 21, 1988, a bomb planted onboard brought down Pam Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 259 people on the plane and 11 more on the ground. By special agreement, two Libyan intelligence agents were tried for the bombing by a Scottish court sitting in the Netherlands. One was acquitted and the other…
Continue ReadingSupreme Court Closes the Door on the Alien Tort Statute
Editor’s Note: This article also appears in Just Security. Earlier this week, June 23, 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in Cisco Systems, Inc. v. Doe. Writing for a six-member majority, Justice Amy Coney Barrett held that federal courts may not hear human rights claims under the Alien Tort Statute (ATS), effectively overruling…
Continue ReadingSupreme Court Decides Cisco and Cimex
Earlier today, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down decisions in two significant transnational litigation cases. In Cisco Systems, Inc. v. Doe, the Court held that federal courts may not recognize any new causes of action under the Alien Tort Statute (ATS), “clos[ing] the door” on human rights litigation under the ATS and effectively overruling Sosa…
Continue ReadingDistrict Court Rejects Constitutional Challenge to TVPA
On June 9, 2026, in Boniface v. Viliena, Judge Allison D. Burroughs (District of Massachusetts) rejected a challenge to the constitutionality of the Torture Victim Protection Act (TVPA), holding that the act applies extraterritorially to torture and extrajudicial killing between aliens and that Congress had authority to pass the act under the Offenses Clause of…
Continue ReadingThrowback Thursday: RJR Nabisco v. European Community
Ten years ago, on June 20, 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision in RJR Nabisco, Inc. v. European Community. The Court held that two of RICO’s criminal provisions apply extraterritorially to the same extent as RICO’s predicate offenses, but that RICO’s civil cause of action applies only when there is injury to…
Continue ReadingSupreme Court Permits Claims Against Cruise Lines for Using Cuban Docks
On May 21, 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court held that Havana Docks, a U.S. company, may sue U.S. cruise lines under the Helms-Burton Act for using docks confiscated by the Cuban government in 1960. Title III of the Act allows U.S. nationals with claims to property expropriated by Cuba to sue any person who “traffics…
Continue ReadingNew Paper on Currency-Based Jurisdiction in U.S. Sanctions Enforcement
Customary international law limits the authority of nations to regulate extraterritorially. As described in TLB’s Primer on Extraterritoriality, a nation may exercise jurisdiction to prescribe if there is a “genuine connection” between that nation and what it wants to regulate. Customary international law limits on jurisdiction to prescribe apply to sanctions programs no less than…
Continue ReadingWashington Supreme Court Requires In-State Property for Recognition of Foreign Judgments
To recognize and enforce a judgment rendered in another jurisdiction, a U.S. court need not have in personam jurisdiction over the judgment debtor. The U.S. Supreme Court observed in Shaffer v. Heitner (1977): Once it has been determined by a court of competent jurisdiction that the defendant is a debtor of the plaintiff, there would…
Continue ReadingThe Oral Argument in Cisco
Editor’s Note: This article also appears in Just Security. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in Cisco Systems, Inc. v. Doe, a case testing whether claims for aiding and abetting human rights violations may be brought in federal court under the Alien Tort Statute (ATS) and the Torture Victim Protection Act (TVPA). The…
Continue ReadingWaco Judge Enjoins Litigation of U.S. Patents in Germany
Judge Alan D Albright (Western District of Texas) loves patent cases. Before his appointment as a district judge in 2018, he was a patent litigator. After his appointment, he “went on a media blitz, letting everyone know that his court would welcome patent litigation.” As detailed here, Judge Albright adopted standing orders that promised speedy…
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