POL208Y1 Lecture 19: Lecture 19.docx
Document Summary
Piracy is always accepted as a case of cogent law (since roman time); therefore open to universal jurisdiction. A man was killed by stroessner in paraguay (filartiga), and the family asked the us courts to try and imprison pena-irala for the torture of their family member. They used the alien tort statute, and argued that us had jurisdiction because torture became part of cogent law, therefore the us had universal jurisdiction over this case and asked the us to try pena-irala for torture. No one and nothing here was us related. International law allowed this because of cogent law. They needed to rule whether they see torture akin to piracy in international law. The us courts in 1980 ruled they had jurisdiction in the filartiga v. pena-irala case. Group of nigerian citizens arguing that shell in nigeria was involved in unsavoury practices and people were against their ways. Nigerian govt to do something and the govt tortured and executed them.
