Uploaded November 2016 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago
Peter is an American attorney, for many years a Vice president of the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) in New York, and a member of ECCHR Advisory Board.
During a visit in Berlin we asked Peter how he helped CCR discover and make the innovative first use of the Alien Tort Claims Act in the United States in the 1970’s, paving the way for nationals and for foreigners present in the US to answer for international grave crimes before civil courts. The case that Peter and his CCR colleague Rhonda Copelon litigated and won in 1980, Filártiga v. Peña-Irala, against a Paraguayan former officer for the torture to death of a young man in Paraguay, remains one of the most cited landmark human rights judgment cited worldwide.
Peter is an American attorney, for many years a Vice president of the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) in New York, and a member of ECCHR Advisory Board.
During a visit in Berlin we asked Peter how he helped CCR discover and make the innovative first use of the Alien Tort Claims Act in the United States in the 1970’s, paving the way for nationals and for foreigners present in the US to answer for international grave crimes before civil courts. The case that Peter and his CCR colleague Rhonda Copelon litigated and won in 1980, Filártiga v. Peña-Irala, against a Paraguayan former officer for the torture to death of a young man in Paraguay, remains one of the most cited landmark human rights judgment cited worldwide.
