Samuel Estreicher co-authors New York Law Journal article on a key Alien Tort Statute ruling

Samuel Estreicher co-authors New York Law Journal article on a key Alien Tort Statute ruling

Samuel Estreicher, Dwight D. Opperman Professor of Law, co-authored an article published on November 5 in the New York Law Journal (subscription only) that discusses the import of a recent Second Circuit ruling on corporate liability under the Alien Tort Statute (ATS). In Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum, the court held that corporations are not subject to liability under the ATS.  While such claims against businesses have become commonplace in recent years, “Kiobel puts a halt to that practice for now, at least in the Second Circuit,” the article notes. Until the mid 1990s, plaintiffs brought ATS suits only against individuals, typically current and former foreign government officials alleged to have violated international human rights law. The Kiobel case is the first full appellate analysis of whether corporations are subject to such suits, but arguably conflicts with an Eleventh Circuit ruling that permitted ATS claims against companies, but devoted minimal discussion to the topic. Estreicher’s co-author was Meir Feder, a partner at Jones Day in New York (where Estreicher is of counsel) and a former adjunct professor at NYU Law.

Posted November 10, 2010