Survivors of genocide and crimes against humanity often find it impossible to obtain compensation for the harms they have suffered and only rarely are the perpetrators punished for their crimes. In the United States victims and their families may be able to file civil lawsuits in federal court against those responsible, relying on a 200-year-old statute, the Alien Tort Statute (ATS) (codified as U.S. Code, vol. 28, sec. 1350). The ATS, enacted in the late eighteenth century, was one of the first laws approved by the newly established U.S. Congress. The Statute's use as a remedy for human rights abuses dates from a 1980 court decision recognizing that it authorizes civil lawsuits for violations of international law. In 2004 the U.S. Supreme Court upheld this use of the statute to seek redress for human rights violations. The ATS offers a potentially powerful tool to those seeking redress and accountability for gross human rights abuses,...