Document Type

Article

Disciplines

International Law

Abstract

On June 15, 1992 the United States Supreme Court, in United States v. Alvarez-Machain,6 stamped its imprimatur on the forcible abduction by the federal government of foreign nationals wanted for trial in the United States for crimes allegedly committed against the United States in another country. Alvarez-Machain overturned a decision of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals7 which had upheld the dismissal of federal criminal charges against Dr. Humberto Alvarez-Machain, a Mexican national who had been kidnapped from his medical office in Mexico by agents of the United States government and brought to the United States to stand trial on charges stemming from the 1985 murder of a United States Drug Enforcement Agent working in Mexico. The lower courts had ruled8 that the forcible abduction of Dr. AlvarezMachain to bring him into the jurisdiction of the district court was a violation of the extradition treaty between the United States and Mexico, thus depriving the trial court of jurisdiction over the prosecution.

The Supreme Court's decision in Alvarez-Machain has created a new doctrine of international due process, referred to here as the KerFrisbie-Alvarez doctrine, which holds that in the absence of a specific treaty provision expressly prohibiting the forcible kidnapping of foreign nationals from the sovereign territory of their home state, the United States may violate international law and abduct said persons to convey them into the jurisdiction of domestic courts to be tried for crimes allegedly committed against the United States.9 Under this doctrine, a trial court is not divested of jurisdiction to hear a case even when established general principles of international law have been violated in bringing the accused before the court.

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