Unanswered questions for SA Apartheid Litigation as US Supreme Court, 17 April, rules against Kiobel case
[Johannesburg, 24 April 2013] -
On Wednesday, 17 April 2013, the US Supreme Court ruled that the Nigerian plaintiffs who had claimed that the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company had been complicit in violating their human rights, may not continue their litigation in US courts using the Alien Tort Statute, the 1789 statute enacted to deal with violations committed by pirates on the high seas.In a 9-0 opinion, the court affirmed the Second Circuit’s dismissal of the Kiobel complaint that the Alien Tort Statue (ATS) does not permit claims for the “extra-territorial” claims made in that case.The court decided that “where the claims touch and concern the territory of the United States, they must do so with sufficient force to displace the presumption against extraterritorial application.” The Kiobel case did not, in their view, meet that standard. The decision is a major blow for the plaintiffs in the Kiobel case. Its impact on the South Africa Apartheid Litigation, which has been pending before the Second Circuit Court since January 2010, awaiting the Supreme Court’s decision in Kiobel, is not yet clear.
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