| The responsibility of major corporations for human rights abuses abroad will be argued on Tuesday in front of the Supreme Court. In the case, Esther Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum, Shell is accused of assisting the Nigerian government in torturing and executing activists who were protesting Shell's drilling operations in the Ogoni region of Nigeria, including Kiobel's late husband, Dr. Barinem Kiobel. Kiobel and the others are suing under the Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA), which was passed in 1789 and allows federal courts to hear "any civil action by an alien for a tort only, committed in violation of the law of nations or a treaty of the United States." Although ATCA was little used for about 190 years, since 1980 foreign nationals have used it more than 120 times to sue 59 corporations for acts perpetrated on them overseas. |
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At www.allgov.com
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