“Plaintiff’s Diplomacy”: A Review of the Issues

The September/October 2000 issue of Foreign Affairs featured an article entitled "Plaintiff's Diplomacy," written by Anne-Marie Slaughter of the Harvard Law School and David Bosco, a third-year student at Harvard Law and co-director of the Harvard Seminar on Ethics and International Affairs.' Plaintiff's Diplomacy documented the increased reliance of private citizens on litigation in U.S. courts as a means of redressing alleged international human rights violations. In these cases a foreign or a domestic plaintiff has sued a foreign state, the leader or official of a foreign government, or a private foreign or multinational corporation. The claims typically allege violations of international law.