Esther Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co

Chilidog · **Joined:** Mon Jan 09, 2012 12:36 pm **Posts:** 1971

http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/ca ... eum-et-al/

Quote:

Issue: (1) Whether the issue of corporate civil tort liability under the Alien Tort Statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1350, is a merits question or instead an issue of subject matter jurisdiction; and (2) whether corporations are immune from tort liability for violations of the law of nations such as torture, extrajudicial executions or genocide may instead be sued in the same manner as any other private party defendant under the ATS for such egregious violations.

I'm just starting to read about this one.

Any opinions?

TollandRCR · **Posted:** Wed Feb 29, 2012 10:23 pm

A bit of background: Shell's operations in Nigeria have always been accompanied by environmental pollution, corruption, and many deaths. A respondent in the Nigerian oil fields once answered one of my students' request for a description of his environment: "It is bright at night because of all the flares [natural gas being wasted], and it is dark at daytime because of all the pollution." The most recent oil spill is thought to take 30 years to clean up. The Nigerian government has never demonstrated any concern for the people who live amongst the oil fields.

TED Case Study Ogoni and Oil

Our noble SCOTUS could find, could it not, that for the purposes of tort claims, corporations are not persons?

Falsehoods unchallenged only fester and grow.

Esther Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co

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