[liberationtech] Kiobel Ruling on Alien Tort Statute and Censorship Tech

[Jillian C. York]

That's a rather odd position for someone who works for a human rights group
to take.


On Wed, Apr 17, 2013 at 2:26 PM, Peter Micek <peter at accessnow.org> wrote:

> Hey Collin,
>
> It looks like the Supreme Court set a very high bar to overcoming the
> presumption of territoriality in ATS cases.
>
> That US laws should apply only to traditional spaces of US jurisdiction is
> presumed unless congress specifically says otherwise. Since the Filartiga v
> Peña case in 1989, the US has experimented with applying the ATS (passed as
> part of the *1789* Judiciary Act), to torts committed elsewhere.
>
> The ATS and other domestic attempts at asserting universal jurisdiction,
> like Spain has experimented with, highlight the need for some adjudication
> where in cases none is likely, or feasible. Spain, for example, recently
> used it to target Pinochet and those responsible for El Salvador's
> massacres in the 1980s.
>
> Courts asserting universal jurisdiction claim the right to judge crimes
> regardless of where they were committed. See
> http://www.globalpolicy.org/international-justice/universal-jurisdiction-6-31.html
>  Some international treaties actually mandate that states account for
> egregious rights abuses when they are not brought to justice domestically.
>
> This post highlights some legal and policy solutions in the U.S. that go
> survive today's ruling:
> http://opiniojuris.org/2013/04/17/human-rights-will-survive-kiobel
>
> The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the proposed State Department Reporting
> Requirements on US companies operating in Burma, and other measures are
> taking the actions of US corps abroad seriously. And the SEC has been able
> to seize funds of bad actors.
>
> There are strong reasons to oppose universal jurisdiction here. Domestic
> courts are not necessarily the best equipped to issue swift justice in huge
> transnational cases. The time and cost on ordinary plaintiffs are
> prohibitive (http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1953190).
>
> The International Criminal Court has assumed jurisdiction over four
> egregious crimes committed worldwide. Corporations don't face any
> transnational court like that. But the process of creating norms (and then
> international law) will continue without universal jurisdiction, and
> companies probably fear angry investors more than many national courts.
>
> Plus, look at the flip side -- do we want torts occurring between US
> entities and citizens, on US soil, adjudicated in foreign domestic courts?
> It's not a perfect analogy, but not likely.
>
> Happy to continue the conversation,
> Peter
>
>
>
> On Wed, Apr 17, 2013 at 4:05 PM, Collin Anderson <
> collin at averysmallbird.com> wrote:
>
>> Libtech,
>>
>>
>> Today the Supreme Court handed down a ruling that seriously limited the
>> scope of the Alien Tort Statute on human rights cases. ATS was the grounds
>> that Iranians attempted to sue Nokia Siemens Networks for their sale of
>> lawful intercept, claims of liabilities for selling surveillance to China,
>> and the Turkcell v. MTN case was waiting on the decision[3], so this should
>> matter to many on the list. I was hoping that perhaps we could pull out
>> some comments from our colleagues in CSR and legal communities.
>>
>> Cordially,
>> Collin
>>
>> [1]
>> http://www.dw.de/nokia-siemens-lawsuit-dropped-by-iranian-plaintiffs/a-6240017
>> [2] http://www.economist.com/node/18986482
>> [3]
>> http://blogs.wsj.com/corruption-currents/2012/10/12/judge-stays-turkcell-lawsuit-citing-supreme-court-case/
>>  --
>> *Collin David Anderson*
>> averysmallbird.com | @cda | Washington, D.C.
>>
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>
>
>
> --
> Policy Counsel | Access
> www.accessnow.org
> www.rightscon.org
> Ph: +1-646-255-4963 | S: peter-r-m | PGP: 22510994
>
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