The Costs of International Human Rights Litigation

Many international law scholars have assumed that the rise of international human rights litigation in US courts is an unequivocally positive development. In this essay, I will suggest that, notwithstanding its understandable appeal, this litigation entails significant domestic costs, and possibly international costs as well. These costs, like the benefits of international human rights litigation, are difficult to measure and probably vary from case to case. If nothing else, however, the existence of these costs may suggest that courts should await specific guidance from Congress before allowing further expansions of this litigation.