Over the past few months, the Supreme Court issued two decisions that fall directly in the international litigation bailiwick. We take a look at those decisions in this column.
Extraterritorial Scope of RICO
In RJR Nabisco v. European Community,1 respondents—the European Community and 26 of its member states—claimed that RJR Nabisco and several related entities participated in a global money laundering scheme under which drug traffickers smuggled and sold drugs in Europe, then used the proceeds to pay for shipments of RJR cigarettes into Europe. Central to the Respondents’ lawsuit were claims that RJR Nabisco violated RICO by engaging in a pattern of racketeering activity.
