Reading between the Lines: Statutory Silence and Congressional Intent under the Antiterrorism Act

British Journal of American Legal Studies, Vol. 1(1), Spring 2012

31 Pages Posted: 24 Jul 2017

Date Written: 2012

Abstract

The Antiterrorism Act (ATA) provides plaintiffs with expansive rights to bring a civil action against those responsible for acts of international terrorism. Just how far this right extends is debatable, resulting in diverging case law. In 2002, the Seventh Circuit held that civil liability under the ATA extended to defendants that aid and abet international terrorism. Six years later, the Seventh Circuit sitting en banc revisited the issue of liability under the ATA and held that plaintiffs may not sue aiders and abettors of international terrorism because the statute does not expressly provide a cause of action against these parties. While the Seventh Circuit’s 2008 decision failed to recognize aiding and abetting liability as a cause of action under 18 U.S.C § 2333, this ruling ignored both Congress’s intent to incorporate common law tort principles into the ATA and the administrative difficulties of parsing through which entities should ultimately be liable. As subsequent case law suggests, courts that apply aiding and abetting principles to § 2333 further the congressional intent to provide plaintiffs with a full array of tort remedies and ease judicial administration and application in a very complex area of the law. Furthermore, courts that validate aiding and abetting liability under the ATA also recognize the reality of fighting terrorism — the violent display of an ideology is only as powerful as those who support the act. While ideological motives will always be difficult to defeat, severing the financial support to these motives is a different matter entirely.

Suggested Citation

Snyder, Jesse, Reading between the Lines: Statutory Silence and Congressional Intent under the Antiterrorism Act (2012). British Journal of American Legal Studies, Vol. 1(1), Spring 2012, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3006275

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