Are Companies Liable For Human Rights Violations Abroad?

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case concerning whether corporations may be sued in a U.S. court for human rights violations abroad. The case centers on the 1789 Alien Tort Statute, revived by human rights activists as a way to seek compensation for atrocities overseas. Though most federal appeals courts have found the statute allows lawsuits against corporations and individuals, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit disagreed, and threw out a case filed by plaintiffs who alleged the policies of the Arab Bank fostered terrorism abroad. This kind of corporate liability has been before the Court before, but that case was found to not have a close enough tie to the United States. This case is different, claim attorneys for approximately 6,000 people who were injured or are survivors of those killed in attacks from 1995 to 2005. Victims say the attacks were facilitated by a New York branch of the Arab Bank distributing millions of dollars to terrorists and their families over a 10-year period. “Everything about this case is fundamentally foreign,” argued lawyers for the Arab Bank. “[I]t involves foreign plaintiffs suing foreign defendants for injuries that occurred on foreign soil as part of a long-running conflict between foreign parties.” The court will hear the case in the term that begins in October.