The Application of Customary international Human Rights Law in the United States: Between Theoretical Recognition and Practical Challenges

Abstract

This study centers on a fundamental issue in contemporary international law, concerning the effectiveness of implementing customary international human rights law in the United States, in light of its theoretical recognition of the "law of the land" without the need for transposing domestic legislation, However, practical reality reveals a profound dualism between official rights-based discourse and actual practice, this manifested in fluctuating judicial practice that oscillated between an expensive approach that culminated in the Filartiga case (1980) and the adoption of a narrow and restrictive trend that began with Sosa (2004) and extended through the Kiobel (2013) and Jesner (2018) cases.

The article concludes that the tendency toward American exceptionalism and sovereign consideration has hollowed the doctrine of automatic incorporation out of its procedural value, turning it into a formal principle that lacks effectiveness in the face of domestic constitutional and political constraints.