Search: Kiobel
17 Apr The Death of Universal Civil Jurisdiction Under the ATS
One idea that Kiobel has put to rest (at least here in US courts) is the idea that the ATS could be fairly read as a grant of universal civil jurisdiction. On this theory, the ATS could be applied to overseas activities if the nature of the alleged action was so heinous as to rise to the level of a universally proscribable crime (see here for Donald Donovan and Anthea Roberts’ take on this). The Court seemed to take this idea pretty seriously in Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain. At least, Justice...
25 Jun Business and Human Rights Symposium: Rejecting Jurisdiction to Avoid Imperialism– That Simple?
...an American enterprise, for a chemical leak killing and injuring thousands of Indians; and the Government of India passed a law to represent Indian claimants in the litigation. Thus, how could anyone consider asserting jurisdiction over the Bhopal case as “another example of imperialism” when Indian citizens and the Government of India itself wilfully decided to file a complaint in US courts? Is not this rather an example of protectionism of US companies? This 1986 decision appears not distant from recent rulings (See e.g. Kiobel, Jesner). This anti-imperialist rhetoric tends...19 Apr Weekday News Wrap: Friday, April 19, 2013
If you haven’t been able to keep up with all of our posts on Wednesday’s Kiobel decision, An has a great round-up post here . Don’t forget that unsolicited submissions are still welcome for consideration. In other Kiobel news, ASIL has posted Curtis Bradley’s Insight here (.pdf). A judge in the Guatemalan case against former president Efrain Rios Montt has suspended his genocide trial on procedural grounds. Following briefings on the bleak humanitarian situation in Syria, the Security Council managed to find a consensus on a non-binding statement demanding an...16 May Will the Supreme Court Revisit Dormant Foreign Affairs Preemption in California’s Armenian Genocide Law?
Armenian-American groups are up in arms over the U.S. government’s decision to file an amicus brief against a California law allowing claims against insurance companies by “Armenian genocide victims.” But they shouldn’t be. The law really involves an ongoing constitutional powers debate between the states and the federal government over foreign affairs, and the U.S. government is siding (not surprisingly) with its own powers. What is more interesting about this case, in the wake of Kiobel, is how human rights groups will increasingly support state autonomy in foreign affairs (to...21 Nov The Ninth Circuit’s Muddled Comity Analysis in Mujica
Last week the Ninth Circuit issued a controversial opinion in Mujica v. Airscan, Inc., that sharply limits the scope of human rights litigation. The claims in Mujica arose in Colombia and allegedly implicate corporate collusion with the Colombian military. Following Kiobel the common consensus was that Alien Tort Statute litigation would be severely curtailed based on the presumption against extraterritoriality. Not surprisingly, the Ninth Circuit rejected the Plaintiffs’ claims, finding that where the only connection to the United States was the Defendants’ nationality, the claims do not “touch and concern”...