Alien Tort Claims Act

The Alien Tort Claim Act, aka the Alien Tort Statute, was part of the Judiciary Act of 1789. Only in 1980 did the U.S. federal courts find any significant meaning in it. Initially, the ATCA applied to violations of basic rules of international law, such as piracy. It was applied at the beginning of 1980 to human rights violations. Its meaning was expanded to incorporate liability, but in 2013 the U.S. Supreme Court ended such lawsuits.