U.S. Legal Decisions Should Rely on Foreign Law: O'Connor
6:46 am PST, 31 October 2003
Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor has said U.S. courts should pay more attention to international legal rulings, to put American in a more favorable light abroad.
Ms. O'Connor, 73, speaking at an awards dinner in Atlanta on Tuesday, said "impressions we create in this world are important, and they can leave their mark."
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported O'Connor and other members of the nation's highest court have made recent appeals to follow foreign law. The thinking has come across in speeches and in their legal decisions on the Supreme Court.
She recieved the World Justice Award from the Southern Center for International Studies.
Ms. O'Connor said the U.S. judicial system generally gives a favorable impression worldwide, "but when it comes to the impression created by the treatment of foreign and international law and the United States court, the jury is still out."
She said in 2002, the high court considered world opinion when it ruled executing mentally retarded convicts unconstitutional.
And this summer, the court relied on international decisions when it decided to overturn a Texas law banning sodomy.
"I suspect over time we will rely increasingly, or take notice at least increasingly, on international and foreign courts in examining domestic issues," she said, according to the paper.
Source: http://7am.com/cgi-bin/catwire.cgi?P...2003103102.htm
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