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Search: Kiobel

02 Oct

[William S. Dodge is Professor of Law and Associate Dean for Research at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. From August 2011 to July 2012, he served as Counselor on International Law to the Legal Adviser at the U.S. Department of State, where he worked on the amicus briefs of the United States in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co. The views expressed here are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the State Department or of the United States.] My thanks to Opinio...
02.10.12 | |

18 Apr

at the future, Peter wrote on how human rights will survive Kiobel and Roger on the rise of transnational tort litigation. We also have a series of guest posts by Thomas Lee, Anthony Colangelo, John Knox, Chimène Keitner, Mike Koehler, Alex Mills and Chris Whytock. There is more to come, and remember, we welcome unsolicited submissions by young academics who wish to contribute to our insta-symposium. And if you want to refresh your memory, the posts from our roundtable when Kiobel was reargued in October 2012 can be found here....
18.04.13 | |

03 Oct

Rather than dwelling further on any prediction of what kind of opinion the Court is likely to produce following oral arguments in Kiobel (FWIW, I thought arguments went better for plaintiffs than I’d anticipated), I wanted to highlight what I thought was a particularly interesting exchange on whether the State Department’s views on the ATS were entitled to some deference by the Court. Background first. I’d read the U.S. Government’s latest brief as arguing for something like a case-by-case approach on the question of which extraterritorial ATS cases might be...
03.10.12 | |

26 Mar

American conduct abroad, or at least conduct that has substantial effects in American or on particularly American interests. But this is not the extraterritoriality of Kiobel, which like many ATS cases have no connection to the U.S. whatsoever. Such universally extraterritorial scope is certainly only found in the face of the clearest statement of congressional intent, such as in the unusual Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act. Universal jurisdiction, of the kind asserted in Kiobel, is exceedingly rare and poses much greater problems than mere extraterritoriality. It raises the question of...
26.03.12 | |

27 Mar

[Eugene Kontorovich is a Professor of Law at Northwestern School of Law] The extraterritoriality analysis starts with piracy, which has gotten significant play in the courts of appeals’ extraterritoriality cases like Doe v. Exxon and Rio Tinto (as well as in the Kiobel oral arguments on corporate liability). Because Sosa held that piracy would be actionable under the ATS, it is clear that the battle over extraterritoriality in Kiobel will be a naval engagement. It is true that piracy occurs extraterritorially, and under the current piracy statute, can be prosecuted...
27.03.12 | |

15 Jun

OK, that is a little overdramatic. Still, the U.S. government has effectively switched sides in the upcoming Supreme Court case: Kiobel v Royal Dutch Shell. In the first incarnation of this case, the U.S. government had filed a brief supporting the petitioners and rejecting the lower court’s holding that corporations cannot be sued under the Alien Tort Statute. But in a supplemental amicus brief filed in response to the Court’s request for reargument, the U.S. is now arguing that the Kiobel case should be dismissed because the case lacks a...
15.06.12 | |

29 Feb

The Kiobel oral arguments have spawned lots of media coverage and commentary. I think this matters more than usual because the way this case plays out in the court of public opinion is going to have an effect on the justices. For instance, Dahlia Lithwick at Slate concludes that.. The skepticism of the court’s conservative bloc notwithstanding, this is a case that may not be resolved on the usual 5-4 party lines. That’s because a decision giving Shell and the many folks who filed amicus briefs supporting Shell (Coca-Cola, Chevron,...
29.02.12 | |

17 Apr

...the presence of US citizen victims. Lots of claims are going to get thrown out in Kiobel’s wake. Does this mean that corporations can turn a blind eye to human rights? Not a chance. Human rights is now a core component of corporate social responsibility, which, at least among major transnational corporations, is no longer optional. The United Nations is moving to bring human rights directly to bear on corporations through such initiatives as the U.N. Global Compact and the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (see John Ruggie’s...
17.04.13 | |

11 Mar

[John Knox is Professor of Law at Wake Forest Law School] The Supreme Court’s decision to send Kiobel back for reargument on whether the Alien Tort Statute allows courts to recognize a cause of action for violations of the law of nations in foreign territory will focus attention on the presumption against extraterritoriality, as Anthony Colangelo pointed out in his recent post here. Here are a few more thoughts to add to Anthony’s interesting analysis of that possibility. For a couple of reasons, the presumption against extraterritoriality doesn’t apply neatly...
11.03.12 | |

28 Feb

[Chimène Keitner is an Associate Professor of Law at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law.] The oral arguments in Kiobel and Mohamed will doubtless generate a new round of commentary on these cases. A “quick response” panel is planned for Thursday, followed by a Georgetown Law symposium on March 27 and an ASIL annual meeting panel on March 31. Since I have written on the choice of law question under the ATS, I predictably agree with Kathleen Sullivan’s statement that “The crucial question that is at the...
28.02.12 | |

17 Apr

The US Supreme Court released its long-awaited Kiobel decision this morning, affirming the Second Circuit’s dismissal of the plaintiffs Alien Tort Statute claims. Chief Justice Roberts wrote the opinion, joined by Justices Scalia, Alito, Thomas, and Kennedy. Justice Kennedy wrote a separate concurrence; Justice Alito did likewise, joined by Justice Thomas. Justice Breyer concurred in the judgment, joined by Justices Ginsburg, Sotomayor, and Kagan. I’m posting this primarily in order to supply the link to the opinion asap, so I’ll refrain from commenting on it for now. The SCOTUS opinion...
17.04.13 | |

17 Apr

We have invited several academic luminaries to post here at Opinio Juris over the next few days about the Supreme Court’s decision in Kiobel. We also are going to try something new and invite young academics to submit guests posts for possible publication. We can’t guarantee we will publish every post submitted, but we would love to broaden the discussion to include new voices. So if you want to write a guest post for Opinio Juris about Kiobel of approximately 500 to 1500 words, please do so in the next...
17.04.13 | |