美国《外国人侵权请求法》诉讼中的法律选择

The Choice of Law in the Alien Tort Claims Act Litigations

在《外国人侵权请求法》诉讼中必须处理法律选择问题,然而,《外国人侵权请求法》本身又没有规定法律选择规则以及可适用的法律。对于法律选择问题,虽然各个巡回法院之间存在很大的分歧,不过总体上仍然是受《裁判规则法》与《第二次冲突法重述》的指引。对于所诉行为的合法性,法院一般适用国际法和侵权行为地法,而对于赔偿金额和诉讼时效问题则适用美国国内法,包括联邦普通法。

The choice of law issues must be dealed with in the ATCA litigations,but the ATCA itself has no choice of law rules or provisions of applicable law.Although there are many differences on the choice of law issues between the various circuit courts,on the whole they are still subjected to the guide of the Rules of Decision Act and Restatement (Second) of Conflict of Laws.The court applied the international law and the law of the place of the tort to judge the legality of the conduct in question;as to the amount of compensation and the issue of statutes of limitation,they are governed by domestic law of the United States,including the federal common law.