Article by Paul R.Q. Wolfson , Jonathan G. Cedarbaum Randolph D. Moss , David W. Ogden , Gary Born , and Suzanne A. Spears
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to decide whether corporations or political organizations can be sued in United States courts for violations of international human rights norms, such as torture, genocide or forced labor, under two federal statutes. The Court accepted one case dealing with potential corporate liability under the Alien Tort Statute ("ATS"), Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum, 621 F.3d 111 (2d Cir. 2010), and a second case concerning the potential liability of organizations under the Torture Victim Protection Act ("TVPA"), Mohamad v. Rajoun, No. 09-7109 (D.C. Cir. March 18, 2011). The two cases probably will be heard in tandem during the Court's February sitting and decided by June 2012.
In disposing of these cases, the Court may put an end to the legal uncertainty that has been mounting for corporations since 2004, when the Court decided that federal courts were authorized to recognize common law claims for certain human rights violations. In Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain, 542 U.S. 692 (2004), the Court took its first in-depth look at the ATS, which was adopted by the first Congress in 1789 and gives U.S. district courts original jurisdiction over civil actions by aliens for torts "committed in violation of the law of nations or a treaty of the United States." The Court held that the ATS does not create any causes of action, but rather provides a jurisdictional hook for causes of action under...
