&lt;p&gt;Should the U.S. Supreme Court be the court of the world? In the 18th century, two feuding Frenchmen inspired a one-sentence law that helped launch American human rights litigation into the 20th century. The Alien Tort Statute allowed a Paraguayan woman to find justice for a terrible crime committed in her homeland. But as America reached further and further out into the world, the court was forced to confront the contradictions in our country’s ideology: sympathy vs. sovereignty. Earlier this month, the Supreme Court heard arguments in&lt;span&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;em&gt;Jesner v. Arab Bank&lt;/em&gt;, a case that could reshape the way America responds to human rights abuses abroad. Does the A.T.S. secure human rights or is it a dangerous overreach?&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;em&gt;Additional music for this episode by&lt;span&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.nicholascarter.com/"&gt;Nicolas Carter&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Special thanks to William J. Aceves, William Baude, Diego Calles, Alana Casanova-Burgess, William Dodge, Susan Farbstein, Jeffery Fisher, Joanne Freeman, Julian Ku, Nicholas Rosenkranz, Susan Simpson, Emily Vinson, Benjamin Wittes and Jamison York. Ken Saro-Wiwa Jr., who appears in this episode, passed away in October 2016&lt;/em&gt;&lt;em&gt;.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;span&gt;Supreme Court archival audio comes from&lt;span&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.oyez.org/"&gt;Oyez®&lt;/a&gt;, a free law project in collaboration with the Legal Information Institute at Cornell.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;span&gt;Support Radiolab by becoming a member today at&lt;span&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="https://pledge3.wnyc.org/donate/radiolab-it/onestep/?utm_source=wnyc&amp;amp;utm_medium=radiolab-redirect&amp;amp;utm_campaign=pledge&amp;amp;utm_content=show-notes" target="_blank" title="Pledge"&gt;Radiolab.org/donate&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span&gt;.    &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Podurama

Home

Trending

Personal

Your Podcasts

New Episodes

My Files

Favourite Episodes

Tags (Folders)

Recently Played

Bookmarks

Followed Playlists

Enemy of Mankind

WNYC Studios