The Alien Tort Statute and Its Implications for Multinational Corporations PDF Download

Author: Linda A. Willett
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Aliens
Languages : en
Pages : 62

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Author: Michael Koebele
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9047427114
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 428

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In his book, Michael Koebele examines the potential liability of transnational corporations under the Alien Tort Statute (also known as Alien Tort Claims Act) for violations of international law in connection with their operations and investments worldwide.

Author: Gary Clyde Hufbauer
Publisher: Peterson Institute for International Economics
ISBN: 9780881323665
Category : Government liability
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Within the next decade, 100,000 class action Chinese plaintiffs, organized by New York trial lawyers, could sue General Motors, Toyota, General Electric, Mitsubishi, and a host of other blue-chip corporations in a US federal court for abetting China's denial of political rights, for observing China's restrictions on trade unions, and for impairing the Chinese environment. These plaintiffs might claim actual damages of $6 billion and punitive damages of $20 billion. Similar blockbuster cases are already working their way through federal and state court systems. This nightmare scenario could become a reality because of a little-known, one-sentence law enacted in 1789--the Alien Tort Statute (ATS): "The district courts shall have original jurisdiction of 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." In this policy analysis, Gary Clyde Hufbauer and Nicholas K. Mitrokostas examine the chilling impact the ATS could have on trade and foreign direct investment. They trace its history from the original intent to recent court interpretations, including a look at class action suits over asbestos and apartheid. They provide an economic picture of the potential scope of ATS litigation, cite the possible collateral damage, and review the impact that ATS rulings could have on global relations. The authors recommend measures Congress should take to limit expansive court interpretations. The study is a must-read for policymakers, international lawyers, and students.

Author: David Kinley
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351929623
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 565

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The erstwhile unlikely coupling of human rights and corporations is now a typical feature of corporate/community relations. High-profile corporate infringements of human rights, the rise and rise of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and on-going efforts to regulate corporate behaviour through legal regimes, at both domestic and international levels, have spawned a mountain of academic literature and commentary. This volume assembles the leading essays from this body of work. Together they frame the relationship between human rights and corporations by charting its history and salient features; tackle the conceptual perspectives of the relationship and detail the practice, problems and potential of the relationship.

Author: George P Fletcher
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1847314635
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 222

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Advancing a bold theory of the relevance of tort law in the fight against human rights abuses, celebrated US law professor George Fletcher here challenges the community of international lawyers to think again about how they can use the Alien Tort Statute. Beginning with an historical analysis Fletcher shows how tort and criminal law originally evolved to deal with similar problems, how tort came to be seen as primarily concerned with negligence and how the Alien Tort Statute has helped establish the importance of tort law in international cases. In a series of cases starting with Filartiga and culminating most recently in Sosa, Fletcher shows how torture cases led to the reawakening of the Alien Tort Statute, changing US law and giving legal practitioners a tool with which to assist victims of torture and other extreme human rights abuses. This leads to an examination of Agent Orange and the possible commission of war crimes in the course of its utilisation, and the theory of liability for aiding and abetting the US military and other military forces when they commit war crimes. The book concludes by looking at the cutting-edge cases in this area, particularly those involving liability for funding terrorism, and the remedies available, particularly the potential offered by the compensation chamber in the International Criminal Court.

Author:
Publisher: Createspace Independent Pub
ISBN: 9781508807438
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 206

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In response to a request by President Barak Obama on November 24, 2010, the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues oversaw a thorough fact-finding investigation into the specifics of the U.S. Public Health Service-led studies in Guatemala involving the intentional exposure and infection of vulnerable populations. Following a nine-month intensive investigation, the Commission has concluded that the Guatemala experiments involved gross violations of ethics as judged against both the standards of today and the researchers' own understanding of applicable contemporaneous practices. It is the Commission's firm belief that many of the actions undertaken in Guatemala were especially egregious moral wrongs because many of the individuals involved held positions of public institutional responsibility. The best thing we can do as a country when faced with a dark chapter is to bring it to light. The Commission has worked hard to provide an unvarnished ethical analysis to both honor the victims and make sure events such as these never happen again.

Author: Surya Deva
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107036879
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 451

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This book critically evaluates the Ruggie Framework and the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, and investigates the normative foundations as well as the nature, extent and enforcement of corporate obligations for the realisation of human rights.

Author: Anthea Roberts
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190696419
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 433

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Book Description
This book takes the reader on a sweeping tour of the international legal field to reveal some of the patterns of difference, dominance, and disruption that belie international law's claim to universality. Pulling back the curtain on the "divisible college of international lawyers," Anthea Roberts shows how international lawyers in different states, regions, and geopolitical groupings are often subject to distinct incoming influences and outgoing spheres of influence in ways that reflect and reinforce differences in how they understand and approach international law. These divisions manifest themselves in contemporary controversies, such as debates about Crimea and the South China Sea. Not all approaches to international law are created equal, however. Using case studies and visual representations, the author demonstrates how actors and materials from some states and groups have come to dominate certain transnational flows and forums in ways that make them disproportionately influential in constructing the "international." This point holds true for Western actors, materials, and approaches in general, and for Anglo-American (and sometimes French) ones in particular. However, these patterns are set for disruption. As the world moves past an era of Western dominance and toward greater multipolarity, it is imperative for international lawyers to understand the perspectives and approaches of those coming from diverse backgrounds. By taking readers on a comparative tour of different international law academies and textbooks, the author encourages them to see the world through the eyes of others -- an essential skill in this fast changing world of shifting power dynamics and rising nationalism.

Author: James B. Whisker
Publisher: Nova Science Publishers
ISBN: 9781536148893
Category : Government liability
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The Alien Tort Claim Act, aka the Alien Tort Statute, was part of the Judiciary Act of 1789. Only in 1980 did the U.S. federal courts find any significant meaning in it. Initially, the ATCA applied to violations of basic rules of international law, such as piracy. It was applied at the beginning of 1980 to human rights violations. Its meaning was expanded to incorporate liability, but in 2013 the U.S. Supreme Court ended such lawsuits.

Author: Doreen Lustig
Publisher: Law and Global Governance
ISBN: 019882209X
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
Veiled Power conducts a thorough historical study of the relationship between international law and business corporations. It chronicles the emergence of the contemporary legal architecture for corporations in international law between 1886 and 1981. Doreen Lustig traces the relationship between two legal 'veils': the sovereign veil of the state and the corporate veil of the company. The interplay between these two veils constitutes the conceptual framework this book offers for the legal analysis of corporations in international law. By weaving together five in-depth case studies - Firestone in Liberia, the Industrialist Trials at Nuremberg, the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, Barcelona Traction and the emergence of the international investment law regime - a variety of contexts are covered, including international criminal law, human rights, natural resources, and the multinational corporation as a subject of regulatory concern. Together, these case studies offer a multifaceted account of the history of corporations in international law over time. The book seeks to demonstrate the facilitative role of international law in shaping and limiting the scope of responsibility of the private business corporation from the late-nineteenth century and throughout the twentieth century. Ultimately, Lustig suggests that, contrary to the prevailing belief that international law failed to adequately regulate private corporations, there is a history of close engagement between the two that allowed corporations to exert influence under a variety of legal regimes while obscuring their agency.