International Law in Domestic Courts

I. Introduction

 

According to news reports, a French appeals court has held that the Libyan head of state, Muammar Qadhafi, could be prosecuted in France for his alleged role in the bombing of a French airliner over Niger in 1989. French prosecutors have opposed the prosecution, arguing that Qadhafi is entitled to head-of-state immunity in the French courts, but an investigating magistrate rejected the argument and the appeals court upheld that decision. The prosecutor is likely to appeal to the Court of Cassation, the highest court in France.

 

According to news reports, Robert Mugabe, the head of state of Zimbabwe, was served with process while he was in New York City for the United Nations Millennium Summit, in a suit brought by Zimbabwean nationals seeking civil damages under the U.S. Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA). The suit alleges that Mugabe orchestrated violence by his political party against its opponents, including beating and burning the plaintiffs or, in one case, the husband of a plaintiff, in order to stay in power at the time of Zimbabwe's parliamentary elections in June.

 

In a long-awaited decision confronting the intersection of federalism and foreign relations, the Supreme Court has struck down a Massachusetts law restricting state purchases from companies doing business in Burma. The Court's June 19 ruling in Crosby v. National Foreign Trade Council was on narrow, non-constitutional grounds. Although the decision puts similar state and local anti-Burma measures at least temporarily on ice, it is unlikely to emerge as the final word on foreign policymaking by state and local actors.