So the history of international human rights law (and international human rights litigation in particular) matters, for litigants and judges and for all of us. It provides us with a context in which to place the special challenges posed by modern human rights claims. And this history is exquisitely relevant, because it is only since 1980—that is, since Filartiga—that the federal courts have had to handle such cases. By coincidence, 1980 is the year I began to serve on the federal bench. Accordingly, while I may have been present at the creation, I have encountered the new international human rights movement principally while on the bench.