In Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co. , 621 F.3d 111 (2d Cir. 2010), a divided panel of the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held that corporations cannot be sued under the Alien Tort Act for violations of customary international law. The Act provides that “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 1980, the Second Circuit had held in Filartiga v. Pena-Irlia that individuals could sue under the Act, holding that deliberate torture perpetrated under color of official authority violates universally accepted norms of the international law of human rights regardless of the nationality of the parties. Individual liability for violations of human rights was also ratified by the Supreme Court in its 2004 Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain decision.
