Divorced Israeli men's abuse of transnational human rights law

This article discusses an innovative transnational legal strategy employed by a group of divorced Israeli men as part of their personal and collective battle over child custody. These men submitted lawsuits to courts in the United States under laws intended to offer aliens the opportunity to seek damages caused by severe human rights violations or by the phenomenon of global organized crime. In these lawsuits, the litigants sought damages and restitution from Israeli ministers, judges, and social workers, as well as from charitable funds that support Israeli organizations, for sums of millions of dollars. While the claims are groundless and were eventually dismissed by the judges, the article points to the actual and potential harms that can be caused by such an abuse of transnational human rights litigation and suggests legal mechanisms that can be used to minimize these harms. As such, the article not only strives to contribute to the discussion concerning the abusive strategies employed by some men's groups but also to the evolving debate concerning the needed conditions for a responsible transnational law, operating for the benefit of humanity.