James R. Copland

On Tuesday of this week, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum, a case that will test the extent to which U.S. law enables litigation in American courts against multinational corporations for allegedly facilitating human-rights abuses in foreign nations in violation of international law norms.

The operative statute, the Alien Tort Statute or Alien Tort Claims Act (codified at 28 U.S.C. § 1350), was a part of the original Judiciary Act of 1789, which reads, "The district courts shall have original jurisdiction of any civil action by an alien for a tort only, committed in violation of the law of nations or a treaty of the United States."

In Kiobel, Nigerian nationals are attempting to invoke the Alien Tort Statute to sue oil companies that the plaintiffs allege worked with the Nigerian military to suppress local opposition to oil exploration. A divided panel of the Second Circuit rejected the Kiobel claim by reasoning that corporate liability was not customary international law, such that the claim lay outside the Alien Tort Statute's jurisdiction.

To discuss these issues, we are lucky to have two distinguished international law professors who each signed amicus briefs in the case, on either side. Julian Ku of Hofstra Law School signed a brief for professors of international law, foreign relations law and federal jurisdiction (PDF) that argued both that the original meaning of the Alien Tort Statute was far narrower than its current application and that the Kiobel suit was unwarranted based on Supreme Court precedent. David Weissbrodt, the Regents Professor and Fredrikson & Byron Professor of Law at the University of Minnesota Law School, signed a brief for international law scholars (PDF) that argued, conversely, that the suit was a legitimate application of international law through the Alien Tort Statute, and that the Second Circuit had misconstrued the international law in this case.

We welcome Professors Ku and Weissbrodt to Point of Law to discuss this important case. The featured discussion will be available below; please check back throughout the week as the discussion continues.