brief - Iran 911 Case

that torts such as piracy, violation of safe conduct, and assaults on ambassadors wereactionable under the ATS in 1789, 6 and that, today, ―courts should require any claimbased on the present-day law of nations to rest on a norm of international characteraccepted by the civilized world and defined with a specificity comparable to the featuresof the 18th-century paradigms we have recognized.‖ Id. at 725. Plaintiffs here submitthat the acts of hijacking (in the nature of piracy) and crashing passenger aircraft intomajor commercial and government buildings (in the nature of interference with safeconduct) clearly must satisfy that standard.Moreover, in passing the Torture Victims Protection Act of 1991 (―TVPA‖), 28U.S.C. §1350 App., Congress expanded the ATS by creating ―liability under U.S. lawwhere under ‗color of law, of any foreign nation‘ an individual is subject to ‗extra judicialkilling.‘‖ Wiwa at 104-05. Further, the ATS reaches private parties whose actions aretaken under the color of state authority or violate a norm of international law recognizedas extending to the conduct of private parties. Kadic v. Karadzic, 70 F.3d 232 (2nd Cir.1995). Thus, the Havlish Plaintiffs who are not U.S. nationals properly assert tort claimshere against all Defendants under the ATS.II.PROCEDURAL HISTORY OF HAVLISHThis action was initiated in the United States District Court for the District ofColumbia on February 19, 2002. Plaintiffs served Iran and the agency andinstrumentality Defendants (listed in note 1, supra) with summonses and copies of the6 One of the inferences the High Court drew ―from the history is that Congress intended the ATS tofurnish jurisdiction for . . . actions alleging violations of the law of nations. Uppermost in thelegislative mind appears to have been offenses against ambassadors . . . ; violations of safe conductwere probably understood to be actionable . . . , and individual actions arising out of prize captures andpiracy may well have also been contemplated.‖ Sosa, 542 U.S. at 720 (citation omitted).8