This briefing page is a comprehensive accumulation of research and presentations from judicial symposia, research roundtables, and commissioned papers on the important and timely issue of Public Nuisance Litigation. read more
Media Center
IN THE NEWS: Increasing Use of the Alien Tort Statute
October 30, 2009
Writing on his blog and in the National Law Journal, Russell Jackson provides his take on the growing use of the Alien Tort Claims Act:
Oil companies, fruit growers, beverage producers, automotive companies, tire producers, pharmaceutical companies -- name an industry, and its members likely have been subject to suits brought in the U.S. in the last decade or so under the Alien Tort Claims Act. Despite direct Supreme Court precedent cautioning against liberal expansion of the ATCA beyond its narrow 18th Century applications (piracy, crimes against ambassadors, and violating "safe conduct" requests), certain courts have continued to entertain ever-broadening interpretations of international law to broaden its scope. As a result, companies have defended suits in the U.S. alleging that they were responsible for a host of activities that occurred abroad, including environmental harm, civil war violence, and even apartheid.
As our own Linda Kelly details in the video below, this is an issue being looked at closely by the Searle Center, and will be the topic of an upcoming event next spring:
in the spotlight
Public Nuisance Issue Briefing Page
November 16, 2009 - 10:45 AMOur Social Networks:
