CPRBlog: Can Corporations Violate Human Rights? In Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum, the Supreme Court May Say Yes ... or No

On February 28 the Supreme Court will hear argument in Kobel. The 2d Circuit Court of Appeals held that a corporation cannot be a human rights violator because the Alien Tort statute permits only the sort of claims recognized under customary international law. For full coverage see Scotus Blog. - GWC

CPRBlog: Can Corporations Violate Human Rights? In <i>Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum</i>, the Supreme Court May Say Yes ... or No: "For over fifty years, Shell has extracted oil from Nigeria, causing great harm to the environment and people of the Niger delta. The Ogoni people living in the delta protested Shell’s operations, and in response the Nigerian government harshly oppressed them. Most infamously, in 1995 it executed the author Ken Saro-Wiwa, together with eight other leaders of the protests.

Esther Kiobel, the widow of one of the executed men, as well as other affected Ogoni, sued Shell in U.S. federal court, claiming that it aided and abetted the Nigerian government in its violations of human rights law. The plaintiffs relied on the Alien Tort Statute (ATS), a law enacted by the First Congress, in 1789, which gives federal courts jurisdiction over claims by aliens arising from torts committed in violation of international law."

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