Law
The Use of Foreign Law in Constitutional Interpretation
Quick fact
In Roper v. Simmons (2005), the U.S. Supreme Court cited international consensus against the death penalty for juveniles, drawing on foreign laws that, in some cases, had already been repealed—yet the Court still used them to support its interpretation of the Eighth Amendment.
Why this is interesting
In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court cited a foreign law that was not even in force in its own country—and the decision sparked a firestorm. Why would a judge look to another nation's laws to interpret their own constitution?