What role can US domestic courts play in the worldwide enforcement of human rights? When international courts deny hearings to individual plaintiffs who cannot obtain the sponsorship of their own government (which may well be the defendant), these plaintiffs are finding US courts increasingly willing to hear their cases. This volume considers the implications of this de facto extension of the jurisdiction of US courts, the problem of enforcing the decisions of the courts, the relationship between human rights law and foreign policy and the emerging consensus on the primacy of human rights over the sovereign rights of states.

What role can US domestic courts play in the worldwide enforcement of human rights? When international courts deny hearings to individual plaintiffs who cannot obtain the sponsorship of their own government (which may well be the defendant), these plaintiffs are finding US courts increasingly willing to hear their cases. This volume considers the implications of this de facto extension of the jurisdiction of US courts, the problem of enforcing the decisions of the courts, the relationship between human rights law and foreign policy and the emerging consensus on the primacy of human rights over the sovereign rights of states.