by on April 17, 2013 · 1 comment in Energy, International, Legal, Personal Liberty
The Supreme Court today refused to allow Nigerians to sue Dutch and other corporations in U.S. court over alleged abuses in Nigeria that occurred under the rule of Nigeria’s former military dictator. These abuses, which allegedly violated international norms, were supposedly assisted by company employees who provided Nigerian troops “with food, transportation,” etc., and allowed “the Nigerian military to use” company “property.” As the Supreme Court put it, “Nigerian nationals residing in the United States, filed suit in federal court under the Alien Tort Statute, alleging that respondents—certain Dutch, British, and Nigerian corporations—aided and abetted the Nigerian Government in committing violations of the law of nations in Nigeria. The ATS provides that ‘[t]he district courts shall have original jurisdiction of any civil action by an alien for a tort only, committed in violation of the law of nations or a treaty of the United States.’”
In its decision today in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co., the Supreme Court held that the statute does not reach conduct within foreign countries (as opposed to piracy on the high seas), in light of the strong presumption against extraterritorial application of U.S. law (it cited the Morrison case, in which CEI filed an amicus brief urging the Court to curb extraterritorial application of U.S. law to enrich trial lawyers at companies’ expense.). The court of appeals had dismissed the lawsuit on an alternative ground, ruling that international law only holds individuals (including corporate employees) liable, not the corporations they work for…… To Read More…..
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