Topic: Alien Tort Statute

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Can foreigners sue international corporations in US courts?

A 223-year-old law says foreigners can file lawsuits in American courts for alleged violations of international law. But whether they can sue corporations remains a question for the Supreme Court.
Change Agent
Seeking justice for victims across borders

The nonprofit group CJA tracks down those who commit crimes in one country and flee to another – and hauls them into court.
Supreme Court declines to take up Abu Ghraib detainee lawsuit

The Supreme Court declined without comment the case of 250 former Abu Ghraib detainees whose lawsuit against private contractors, for allegedly abusing and torturing Abu Ghraib inmates, had been thrown out of federal court.
Guatemalans sue US for deliberately spreading illness in 1940s experiment

A lawsuit was filed Monday in a US district court on behalf of 700 Guatemalan soldiers, mental health patients, and orphans secretly experimented on from 1946 to 1948.
Supreme Court allows drug test case against Pfizer to proceed

US pharmaceuticals giant Pfizer allegedly conducted nonconsensual drug tests on 200 Nigerian children, some of whom died. The Supreme Court Tuesday allowed a civil lawsuit against Pfizer to go forward.
Cheers in Nigeria after Shell agrees to pay $15.5 million

Despite the settlement, the oil firm denies complicity in the former military government's execution of antidrilling activists in the mid-1990s. Activists say the case is 'an important first step' toward justice in the region.
US case highlights Cuban 'slaves' in Curaçao

A federal judge in Miami last month ordered a shipping firm to pay $80 million for conspiring with Cuba to abuse workers.
Bright Green
Wal-Mart greening its jewelry?

Wal-Mart is rolling out a new line of gold and silver jewelry that they say can can be traced from the mine to the store.
U.S. high court allows apartheid claims against multinationals

The suit argues that by doing business with South Africa, the companies abetted the racist former regime.
Olympic torch rallying China's critics

For some years, China's boom and the war on terror have overridden human rights concerns.