Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum : cert granted

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed today to review Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum. In this case arising from alleged collusion between the Nigerian military and Shell Oil the Second Circuit Court of Appeals held that corporations are immune under the Alien Tort Claims Act for human rights violations. For earlier commentary see this and this. - GWC

Issue: (1) Whether the issue of corporate civil tort liability under the Alien Tort Statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1350, is a merits question or instead an issue of subject matter jurisdiction; and (2) whether corporations are immune from tort liability for violations of the law of nations such as torture, extrajudicial executions or genocide may instead be sued in the same manner as any other private party defendant under the ATS for such egregious violations.

Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum : SCOTUSblog:

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