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Wiwa v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co.

Foreign corporations' maintenance of investors relations office in New York subjected them to personal jurisdiction; suit against foreign corporations under Alien Tort Claims Act based on their participation in human rights abuses with foreign government was not subject to dismissal on forum non conveniens grounds.

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The full case caption appears at the end of this opinion.

This case concerns the application of forum non conveniens doctrine to suits under the Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA), 28 U.S.C. � 1350, involving claimedabuses of the international law of human rights. Plaintiffs are three Nigerian �migr�s, and a woman identified only as Jane Doe to protect her safety, who allege thatthey (or in some cases their deceased next of kin) suffered grave human rights abuses at the hands of the Nigerian authorities. Defendants Royal Dutch PetroleumCompany (“Royal Dutch”) and Shell Transport and Trading Co., P.L.C. (“Shell Transport”) are business corporations, incorporated in the Netherlands and theUnited Kingdom respectively, that are alleged to have directly or indirectly participated in or directed these abuses. The district court (Wood, J.) dismissed theaction for forum non conveniens after determining that England is an adequate alternative forum and that a balancing of public interest and private interest factorsmake the British forum preferable. Plaintiffs appeal, arguing, inter alia, that the district court erred in not affording sufficient weight to the plaintiffs’ choice of forumand to the interests of the United States in providing a forum for the adjudication of claims of abuse of international human rights. Defendants contend that, regardlessof the propriety of a dismissal based on forum non conveniens, the court lacked personal jurisdiction over them. We hold that the district court properly exercisedjurisdiction over the defendants. As to the dismissal for forum non conveniens, we reverse.

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