Restorative justice is an ambitious concept. It requires a perfect world in which all stakeholders to a tragedy are able to come together and resolve things in the aftermath of an egregious offense. In the utopia of restorative justice, the victim, her offender, and the community at large are able to, together, search for ways to repair and reconcile.

But real life is dystopian. And for the victims of 9/11 and their families, justice remains as elusive and out-of-reach as the perpetrators itself.

Since 9/11, there has been much conjecture and theorizing by conspiracists. One of the few constants in the murky world that is the post-9/11 era has been the identity of the hijackers themselves:  of the 19 terrorists, 15 were of Saudi nationality.

A recent series of memos seems to imply that these terrorists were not psychotic lone wolves emerging from distant desert caves to carry out a highly complex, deranged mission. For many, it is pretty much a well-documented fact at this point that, surely, the perpetrators of 9/11 had received at least some form of support from the Saudis.

This conjecture, treated by most as a fact, has led to an increased demand for the declassification of the notorious 28 pages of an 838-page congressional report (which allegedly highlights funds and connections between the terrorists and Saudi Arabia).

It has also bolstered longstanding attempts of 9/11 victims and their families to seek legal remedy against their offenders.

The Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA), which received Senate approval this week, is being pushed through the system in order to do just that.

According to co-sponsor senator John Cornyn, the bill’s purpose is to send the unequivocally loud and clear message: the U.S. “will combat terrorism with every tool we have available, and that the victims of terrorist attacks in our country should have every means at their disposal to seek justice.”

JASTA will accomplish this by granting the right for private plaintiffs — victims of 9/11 and their families — to sue the foreign government of Saudi Arabia for any possible role it had in the September 11 attacks.

A Middle Finger to Geopolitics

State sovereignty is an absolute. It is taught in law schools as the most basic of principles: a foreign sovereign cannot be sought in a domestic judicial proceeding (with the exception of commercial matters). Yet, this is exactly what Senate is allowing to happen by voting in to make JASTA the law.

The complexities of what JASTA would do for the diplomatic relations of the U.S. and Saudis — two longtime allies — along with the economic ramifications (Saudi Arabia has threatened to sell up to $750 billion of its assets in the U.S.) is well beyond both the scope of this article and the ambit of my knowledge base.

But, as an international human rights lawyer, my knowledge base permits me to make the following statement. A law like JASTA is a huge middle finger in the face of modern-day geopolitics.