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Suit against Blackwater invokes little-used human rights law.

Article Excerpt
In the wake of the killings of several Iraqi civilians in September by employees of Blackwater USA, the private security contractor hired by the federal government to guard U.S. diplomats in Iraq, the New York City-based Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) has filed a lawsuit on behalf of the victims' families. To do so, CCR invoked a near-forgotten maritime law originally designed to combat piracy.

Sometimes called the Pirate Law, the Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA)--which allows non-U.S. citizens to file federal civil suits in U.S. courts for acts that violate a U.S. treaty or an international law--was passed in 1789. It lay dormant for almost 200 years, until Joel Filartiga, a Paraguayan doctor, used it successfully in 1980 to sue a police officer who had tortured and killed Filartiga's teenage son and who later moved to Brooklyn. (Filartiga v. Pena-Irala, 630 F.2d 876 (2d Cir....

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