Sotomayor on International Law

In April, Sonia Sotomayor made a speech to the Puerto Rican chapter of the ACLU, in which her focus was International Law. Here are her views:

I always find it strange when people ask me, “How do Americans’ courts use
foreign and international decisions — law in making their decisions?” And I
pause and say, “We don’t use foreign or international law. We consider the ideas
that are suggested by international and foreign law.” That’s a very different
concept, and it’s a concept that is misunderstood by many. And it’s what creates
the controversy that surround — in America, especially — that surrounds the
question of whether American judges should listen to foreign or international
law. And I always stop and say, “How can you ask a person to close their ears?”
Ideas have no boundaries. Ideas are what set our creative juices flowing. They
permit us to think, and to suggest to anyone that you can outlaw the use of
foreign or international law is a sentiment that’s based on a fundamental
misunderstanding. What you would be asking American judges to do is to close
their minds to good ideas — to some good ideas. There are some ideas we may
disagree with for any number of reasons, but ideas are ideas, and whatever their
source — whether they come from foreign law, or international law, or a trial
judge in Alabama, or a circuit court in California, or any other place — if the
idea has validity, if it persuades you — si te comprense — then you are going to
adopt its reasoning. If it doesn’t fit, then you won’t use it, and that’s really
the message that I want you to leave with here today. I’m going to try first to
understand the way that American law is structured against the use of foreign
and international law, because American analytical principles do not permit us
to use that law to decide our cases. But nothing in the American legal system
stops us from considering the ideas that that law can give us.