On September 17, 2010, the Second Circuit dismissed a putative class action brought by Esther Kiobel, the wife of a member of the “Ogoni Nine” who was executed by hanging in 1995 along with Nigerian author and environmentalist Ken Saro-Wiwa.[1] The plaintiffs alleged that Royal Dutch Petroleum Company and Shell Transport and Trading Company, acting through a Nigerian subsidiary, aided and abetted the Nigerian dictatorship’s violent suppression of protests against oil exploration and development activities in the Ogoni region of the Niger Delta. The Kiobel dismissal has garnered attention because of its broad holding that corporations are not subject to suit under the Alien Tort Statute. Absent action by the Second Circuit en banc, the U.S. Supreme Court, or Congress, corporations will no longer be subject to suit under the Alien Tort Statute in the Second Circuit, or in any circuit that adopts the Second Circuit’s reasoning. More...
