Clifford Chance
U.S. Supreme Court Hears Argument Regarding Extraterritorial Application of the Alien Tort Statute
4 October 2012
On October 1, 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments for a second time in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co. on the issue of “whether and under what circumstances the Alien Tort Statute (“ATS”) ... allows courts to recognize a cause of action for violations of the law of nations occurring within the territory of a sovereign other than the United States.” Kiobel involves a lawsuit by 12 Nigerians who allege that Dutch, British, and Nigerian oil companies aided and abetted the Nigerian government in committing human rights violations in connection with its efforts to stop protests against oil drilling in the Ogoni region of the Niger Delta.
