The Alien Tort Statute, passed as part of the Judiciary Act of 1789, gives federal courts the power to hear cases brought by foreigners who allege “a violation of the law of nations or a treaty of the United States.” The Supreme Court in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum (2013) held that this law presumptively doesn’t apply to violations committed abroad—though that presumption can be overcome when claims “touch and concern the territory of the United States … with sufficient force.”
Then in Jesner v. Arab Bank, PLC (2018), the Court ruled that foreign corporations cannot be sued under the ATS because international norms about corporate liability are not settled. A lawsuit against a U.S. corporation based on actions taken abroad would thus seem to be a long shot, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has obliged with just that eventuality, in a case over atrocities committed in Côte d’Ivoire.
The underlying crimes around which this controversy revolves make up part of an ongoing series of human rights abuses in West Africa. The use of child slavery has garnered international attention and focused scrutiny on the cocoa trade from which abusive plantations draw their revenue. Nestlé, known for its chocolate among other foods and beverages, has condemned the modern slave trade and joined accords aimed at eliminating human trafficking in the region. But Nestlé U.S.A. and its Swiss parent find themselves in a long‐running suit over the enslavement of a number of Malians on Ivorian plantations, on the basis of the corporations’ alleged purchase of cocoa on farms that used slaves.
Read more at https://www.cato.org/blog/supreme-court-should-review-ninth-circuit-error-regarding-alien-tort-statute
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