This report released by EarthRights International in July 2004 summarizes the history, jurisprudence and politics of the Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA) in order to explain how this relatively obscure law became a lightning rod in the world of business and human rights, and the target of an attack by business and the Bush Administration, culminating in the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 2004 decision in Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain.